Converging Timelines
by GoddessAmanda1984
Summary: Set after The Angels Take Manhattan. A series of adventures with the Doctor and his new companions Lana and Annie Anderson.
1. Prologue: Lana and Annie Anderson

Lana Anderson looked around her old office with feelings of bitterness, disappointment, and a hint of anger. Downsizing, they said. Economy in recession. An unfortunate necessity. They could call it whatever they wanted; she called it getting fired. With a dejected sigh she closed the door behind her and walked out with the box of her things held at her hip.

* * *

"Don't you dare tell Annie yet," she demanded of her mother when she told her on the phone. "I don't want her worrying about me during the wedding. I'll tell her when she gets back from her honeymoon."

"Well if you're sure about that," said her mother, Bonnie. "You'll be by in the morning to help with decorations then?" Lana agreed and hung up.

The next morning Lana arrived on schedule to find her mother practically in a panic and her sister Annie was puffing on her cigarette as if it contained some vital life source. "The minivan's broken down," Bonnie announced. "Today of all days! I don't know how we'll possibly get all these decorations there!"

"Ma, I told you, we'll just have to bring all the decorations over in Lana's car. There's nothing else to do!" Annie interjected with an exasperated exhale of smoke.

"Those decorations filled almost the whole van when I picked them up. There is no way it will all fit into Lana's car," their mother insisted.

"Ma, I'm sure I can fit it all in my trunk. Just bring it out to me," said Lana. She had been prepared for some meltdown of this degree to occur at some point over the weekend. Annie had long since designated Lana the peacekeeper for the event. Actually, her exact words had been, "Just make sure I don't murder anyone. I won't want bloodstains on my wedding dress."

Lana was also quite confident that whatever was needed to fit in the trunk would. She was actually quite well known for being able to compact all kinds of things in there that people didn't believe would fit. On a dare once, she was able to get three people inside. Once everything was packed in the trunk, much to Bonnie's astonishment, they were ready to drive over for the rehearsal. Annie was puffing on her third cigarette since Lana's arrival and said, "I told you it would fit, Ma. I swear to you her trunk is bigger on the inside." She looked over to her sister, "Can I drive?"

"No," said Lana. "I don't care if it is your wedding, it's still my car. Nobody drives Blue around but me."

"I still don't understand why you named your white car Blue," said Annie.

"It just felt right," said Lana and they drove off.

* * *

It was the morning of the wedding, and Lana was running about the venue herding guests and other details to their place. The pianist was playing a lovely rendition of Beethoven's "Fur Elise." Seeing her great aunt Joan struggling with a walker she went over to help. Aunt Joan was 74 and very conservative and set in her ways. She leaned in to Lana, "You know it's wonderful that Annie is settling down with such a nice man. It's a shame you haven't settled down yet. You know you're such a lovely woman. There's no reason you're younger sister should be getting married before you." Lana muttered something about focusing on her career and walked away just as soon as she got Aunt Joan to her seat.

Lana pulled her silenced cell phone from her neckline to check the time. Max, the groom, should be in place by now. As she went off to look for him, she wondered what excuse she'd be able to use to stave off the vultures now that she didn't have a career to focus on. She supposed she'd have to either find another job quick or just start telling her relatives to shove it. The truth was, she'd rather have no relationship than a bad one, but this logic seemed lost on people like her mother and Aunt Joan who felt she ought to be married with children by now like was proper.

Suddenly, she stopped. There were voices coming from a janitor's closet. She opened the door to find Max and one of the caterers locked in embrace. She could see the panic in his eyes at being caught and she could tell he was about to bolt. "Don't even think about it," she said. In a sweeping motion, she grabbed a broom and closed the door on them. She used the broom to jam the door as a makeshift lock. Then she picked up the phone, "Annie, I'm down the hall from you. You need to come out here."

Annie appeared at the end of the hallway a moment later, looking resplendent in her white gown as the late afternoon sun framed her figure from the window behind her. "Annie, I'm going to show you something you need to see, but before I do, please remember you don't want to murder anyone this weekend. If you've changed your mind about blood on the dress, just remember that there is a building full of witnesses."

They looked at each other for a moment, and then Annie said, "This is bad, isn't it?" Lana nodded, then removed the broom and opened the door.

Max looked at his would-be bride sheepishly. The caterer looked at Annie and then back at Max. "You're the groom? You told me you were the best man!" She shoved past the bride and ran off in horror.

Max cleared his throat and said, "Honey, you know it's bad luck for me to see you right now."

"That's right," said Annie. "Bad luck for you." Then she punched him in the face.

* * *

After a long day of cancelling the wedding and sorting out the details, Lana and Annie sat together at the venue's bar for a drink, both still dressed in their lavish wedding clothes. Annie had burned through an entire pack of cigarettes in the intervening hours and was now starting to curse that she was out. "Here," said Lana, handing her another pack from her bag.

Annie gave her a look. "You don't smoke."

"I know," said Lana. "I tipped one of the staff to run out for an extra pack for you after we found Max. I figured you'd need it. Always prepared, you know."

Annie gratefully took the pack and lit one up. "Have I ever told you that you are my favorite sister?"

Lana smiled at their long running joke. There were no other sisters. "Ah, well, I'm glad to know I still rank. I'm very competitive, you know."

Annie said, "Yes I know. I suppose that's how you got that cushy management position at W. McDermott's."

Lana cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably on the bar stool. "Ah yes, well about that…I was fired this week."

Annie looked at her in shock. "What? Why? Why didn't you tell me?"

"To answer those questions in order, yes you heard correctly; some mumbo jumbo about the economy and downsizing; and I didn't want you to worry about me during your wedding," she said ticking off each answer on her fingers as she went. "I was going to tell you when you got back from your honeymoon."

"Oh, god the honeymoon!" exclaimed Annie. "What a waste! That trip is non-refundable you know!"

"Well you should still go," Lana reasoned. "You shouldn't have to miss out on a fantastic trip just because Max can't keep it in his pants. Besides, I'm betting you'd do well to get away for just a wee bit."

"You know you should come with me," said Annie. Lana gave her a look, but Annie continued on. "Well you've already got the time off from work, and you wouldn't want that extra ticket to go to waste either, would you?"

Lana smiled, "Mmph, I suppose you're right. And I suppose that I would do well to get away for just a wee bit as well."

A stranger across the bar called over, "Did you just get married? You look beautiful!" Lana and Annie turned their heads to give the woman twin glares of disgust. A week later, they left for Scotland.

* * *

The pair arrived at the bed and breakfast in a small Scottish village feeling worn out from the long trip from America. Annie went in ahead to check in while Lana began to unload luggage from their rented car. A woman came to greet Annie, looking warm and cheerful; exactly what Annie was not in the mood for. "You must be Mrs. Leonard! We have the honeymoon suite all ready for you!"

"It's Ms. Anderson. Where is the room?" she said through clenched teeth.

"Och, my apologies, Ms. Anderson," she said in a soft Scottish brogue. "You must be one of those modern ladies who likes to keep her maiden name. Where's your bonnie groom then? Oh, you must have him carrying all the heavy things. It's best to have men do those things; makes them feel important." The woman winked conspiratorially at Annie as if they were best friends. Before Annie could tell this ridiculously chipper woman off, Lana walked in with the luggage.

The woman looked from Lana to Annie then back to Lana again with her jaw held slack. Looking at Lana with the luggage, she said, "Are you Ms. Leonard then?"

Annie interjected, "This is my sister! I didn't get married, you twat!" She was practically growling she was so annoyed with this woman.

"Oh," said the woman meekly. "But I thought you booked the honeymoon suite."

"I did," said Annie, her words becoming more and more heated. "I was supposed to be married, but my fiancé decided to start his own honeymoon early with the caterer. Now quit being so damn chipper and nosy and show me my room!"

Once they got to the room, Lana quietly pulled the woman aside. "Make sure everyone on your staff is aware that neither of us are to be referred to as Mrs. Anything, and certainly not Leonard. Understood?"

"Of course, Miss," said the woman who was now watching Annie out of the corner of her eye to be sure she wouldn't turn violent. Lana tipped the woman as she left.

Just before Lana and Annie turned out the lights for the evening, a blue police box materialized in front of the bed and breakfast.

* * *

Somewhere else in town, a small group of creatures convened. They were bipedal, had grey scaled skin, gills on their necks, and a protruding fin on their backs. Their fingers were slightly webbed and they each had a large mouth with sharp, protruding teeth. One creature approached the one sitting at the head of the table, the leader. "The eggs and nanobots should be fully dispersed by our calculations. Shall we activate the enzymes?"

"Yes," said the leader. "Our children will be born and our people shall rise again."


	2. Meeting the Doctor

Lana woke late the next morning to the sound of Annie in the shower. There was a pitcher of water on the dresser and Lana poured a glass as Annie came out running a towel through her raven black curls. "You know," said Annie, "I feel dirtier now than when I got into the shower."

Lana looked down at the glass of water and realized it wasn't exactly clear. "Mmph, it must just be the foreign water. I don't think I'll drink this."

Annie nodded in agreement. "I'm sure we can find some bottled water when we go out and about."

The pair continued to get ready for their day. They had plans to explore the village. Annie wore a t-shirt and jeans with sneakers. Today she left her shoulder length curls loose. Although Annie typically wore casual clothing, her makeup and nails were always perfect. Lana never saw the point in all the time that took, but she tended to dress more femininely than her sister. Today she wore a flowing white skirt that stopped just below her knees with a lavender tank top and ballet flats. She wore a plan headband in her straight auburn hair which went down to her waist.

Annie was several inches taller than her older sister, but they had enough similarities in their faces to make the family resemblence distinctive which was emphasized by the fact that they both wore the same frames for their glasses.

As the two stepped outside, Lana noticed the police box. Annie, typically impatient, had already started walking ahead. "Hey!" Lana called out. "Do you remember this big blue box being here last night?"

Annie came back to examine the box that had caught her sister's attention. "No, but I was so exhausted when we came in I'm surprised I remember anything at all. I'm sure we just overlooked it." She walked around the outside of the box, examining it with interest. "What's a police box I wonder?"

"Oh, I've read about these," Lana answered. "It's a British thing. I thought they were all gone though."

"Hmm," said Annie thoughtfully. "Well let's go. We didn't come all the way to Scotland to stare at a blue box all day." And the pair began walking into the village.

In the village, Lana and Annie walked down the main street of town, looking in shop windows as they went. They softly sang Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" as they strolled. As they entered a shop that had caught their interest, the shop girl approached them, looking cheerful. "Can I be helping you find anything, then?"

They were both in a sufficiently better mood than the previous evening having had a good night sleep and being away from everything at home. Lana said, "We're just looking around. But could you tell us where in town we might find some bottled water? "

The girl upon hearing her speak said, "Och, you're American then? Here on holiday I suppose? Well there's a druggist down the street that might have some. Folks around here just drink from the tap, but every once in awhile we get the odd tourist who wants some."

They thanked her and continued to look around while the shop girl went into the back room. As Lana and Annie cheerfully looked at various knick knacks. In the back room, there was the sound of some large object being dropped. The sisters looked up. "Do you suppose she's alright back there?" Lana asked.

"I don't know, let's check," Annie responded.

The two started walking toward the back of the store slowly. They heard another crash as they approached. "Miss? Are you alright?" Lana called out. No answer. "Miss!" They peered through the doorway cautiously. They could see boxes and scattered knick knacks all over the floor, but they didn't see the shop girl. "Miss!" they continued to call out.

"Where do you suppose she went?" asked Annie.

"Maybe to go get a broom for this mess? Maybe she can't hear us," Lana suggested.

"Then why do I feel like a monster's going to jump out at us like a bad horror film?" asked Annie.

"I don't know," said Lana, not dismissing the possibility.

They turned around a corner of storage shelves, and there was the shop girl, with her back turned to them. "Are you alright, miss? We're sorry to come back here, but we heard all that banging and wanted to make sure you were ok." Lana reached out to touch the girl's shoulder. The girl turned around, and Lana pulled her hand back in disgust. It was covered with some sort of slimy residue. But the girl had changed somehow. Her skin looked pale and almost scaly and her eyes had rolled off to strange angles, looking at either side of her head instead of straight ahead or in any one direction. On either side of her neck were three slits like gills.

Lana and Annie stared in shock, and Annie asked, "Can you speak? What did this to you?" But instead of speaking, the girl started to come toward them with her arms outreached as if to attack. The girl's fingers were now slightly webbed. The two backed away until they reached back to the corner of the shelves. Annie grabbed Lana's hand and said, "Run!"

The two were out of the store as quickly as they could but then stopped short just outside the door. Looking up and down the street, they could see more people that had been changed like the shop girl. They all had the same slimy scaled skin, the eyes rolled back out of natural place, and they all looked angry. Many were beating in shop windows as they walked along. Some were attacking the cars. Some were wandering about aimlessly as if they were just looking for something to destroy. And then a few spotted Lana and Annie.

The pair ducked into an alley next to the shop, as the fish people came toward them. As they ran, Annie shouted, "What do you think they are?"

"I don't know," Lana yelled back. They came out of the other end of the alley to find themselves in a public park. They found a large statue and ducked behind it. Peering out, they looked and seemed to have lost their pursuers.

As the two sat and caught their breath, they tried to work things out. "Do you think we should call 911?" asked Annie.

"You mean 999?" said Lana.

"No, I mean 911. You know, emergency? I believe this might qualify as an emergency," replied Annie, exasperated.

"911's just in America. Here they use 999," said Lana.

"How do you know all these things?" mused Annie with a roll of her eyes.

"Recreational research," said Lana. "You never know when you might need to know these things."

"I swear I don't even know why I tolerate you," replied Annie. "Fine then, do you think we should call 999?"

"And tell them what? That the village we're visiting is being attacked by fish people? We'll sound like a couple of insane American pranksters!" But even as she spoke, she was pulling her phone out. "Besides, I've got no service anyway."

"What about that police box we saw in front of the bed and breakfast?" asked Annie. "Those have got to be connected to the police somehow right?"

"They were," Lana responded. "But no one uses those anymore. That one is probably one they just forgot to get rid of."

"So we'll have to find our own way out," said Annie. She peeked back around the corner of the statue to see that fish people were starting to wander into the park. But they hadn't noticed the sisters yet.

"Right, so we'll need a plan," said Lana.

"One thing in our favor, they seem to be slow," said Annie. "But I think they'd still be a problem if we ran into too many of them out in the open."

"What did that to them though?" asked Lana. "That shop girl, she was just fine before she went into the back room. Now it's like they've all changed. But why didn't we?"

A man's voice from behind them said, "Yes, there is definitely something different about you, besides the fact that you are clearly American. But what?"

Lana and Annie turned to see a man in a tweed jacket and bow tie crouched down beside them also watching the fish people as they had done. In unison, the two demanded, "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," said the man without hesitation.

"Doctor who?" responded the pair, still in unison.

That seemed to unhinge the man for just a moment. "OK that was creepy," he said slowly. "Just the Doctor."

"Mmph," said Lana. "I don't trust doctors."

"Me neither," said Annie, reaching out to touch the man's face. "You don't seem to be a fish person, though."

The man seemed even more taken aback. "That is just rude and extremely American. Do you put your grubby paws on everyone's faces when you first meet them?"

"Only if I think they may be fish people," said Annie.

"The village has been taken over by fish people and this guy's worried about our manners," said Lana with a roll of her eyes. "How long have you been here listening to us?"

"Long enough to tell you that nobody at either 911 or 999 can help you with this," said the man.

"Oh and I suppose you can, Doctor?" asked Lana, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the last word. "How are you going to do that? You look like an English professor."

"Yeah, what's with the bow tie?" added Annie.

"Bow ties are cool. And it just so happens that I can," replied the Doctor confidently as he straightened the bow tie in question. "But first we have to get back to the police box you mentioned."

Annie lightly shoved Lana. "I thought you said nobody uses those anymore."

The Doctor interjected, "No, she's right. Nobody uses those anymore. Nobody but me."

Lana still looked skeptical. "I'm not even going to bother asking how you're going to use that box. But since our bed and breakfast and more importantly, our rental car are there as well, I will agree that would be the best place to get to."

Annie scanned back over the park. "So what do you think, Lana? Do you have a brilliant plan or should we charge and push through by brute force?"

"I don't see a way around them," said Lana. "Do you think you could punch one out?"

"Absolutely," said Annie, cracking her knuckles. "This should be fun."

The Doctor said, "Well that's one way to do it. But I don't know that it's really necessary…" He trailed off when he realized it was too late. The pair had already made a dash for it.

A group of fish people started moving toward them as soon as they were visible. Lana yelled, "Follow me! To the merry-go-round!" They ran to the playground at the other end of the park. Lana reached the merry-go-round first and got it spinning. They jumped on and Annie started punching fish people while they spun.

Lana flashed Annie a grin and the two began to laugh. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Without another word, they burst into song. "You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby, right round round round."

Still poised behind the statue, the Doctor looked on at the two sisters in amazement. "The village is being attacked by fish people and these two burst into song," he mused to himself while shaking his head. He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket knowing what to do. He used it to emit a sound wave that caused every fish person in the park to fall unconscious.

The Doctor ran across the park where Lana and Annie gawked at the unconscious fish people. He ran the sonic screwdriver over the forehead of one. "Did you kill them?" asked Annie.

"No," said the Doctor. "They're just unconscious. I'm trying to determine what did this to them. Oh, what's this then?" He continued to scan the fish person intently. "An enzyme, and eggs."

"What are you talking about, enzymes? And what is that thing you have?" asked Lana.

"It's my sonic screwdriver. And the enzymes are what changed these people, activated by nanobots, for the purpose of feeding the eggs nestled in their brains. They're attacking, because the enzymes are inhibiting the impulse control center," the Doctor explained.

"Well can they be changed back?" asked Lana.

"If we can deactivate the nanobots it will reverse the enzymes and the eggs inside will just die and cause no harm," said the Doctor. Then he looked sharply at the sisters. "The real question is, why everyone else and not you two."

"And you," added Annie.

"Oh, I'm sure it doesn't have me because I'm not human," said the Doctor.

"Then what are you?" asked Annie

"Oh, I'm a time lord, an alien," said the Doctor.

Lana could see that Annie was getting ready to argue more, but pointed out, "Well if we've already accepted the existence of fish people, some alien who calls himself a time lord isn't exactly that far-fetched, now is it?" Annie rolled her eyes at her sister.

"But back to you two," interjected the Doctor. "What are your names by the way?"

"Lana."

"Annie."

"OK Lana and Annie, what's different about you? You're American, but that can't be it. Is it that you're sisters? Not sure. Tell me, did you see any of them change?" the Doctor babbled on.

"We didn't tell you that we're sisters," said Lana. "How did you know?"

"You act like sisters," said the Doctor, brushing off the question. "Did you see any of them change?

Annie said, "We saw that shop girl change."

"Well," Lana added in, "we didn't precisely see her. She was talking to us and was normal, and then she went into the back room. We heard a bunch of banging noises and when we went to look she had changed."

"Do you remember if she said anything before that?" asked the Doctor.

"We were asking where to get some bottled water and she was telling us where," answered Lana.

"Bottled water?" asked the Doctor vaguely taken aback. "Are all you Americans too good to drink from the tap?"

"Well not usually," said Lana indignantly.

"The water in this village is just disgusting, that's all," Annie added in. "I took a shower and felt dirtier when I got out than when I got in."

"So neither of you has drunk any of the water since you've gotten here?" asked the Doctor.

"No," they answered in unison.

"You two have got to quit doing that…and that's it! It's the water! The nanobots, the eggs, the enzymes…it's in the water," said the Doctor.

Then Lana noticed a glimpse of movement behind the Doctor. "Doctor," she said cautiously.

"Now we just need to find who's controlling them and we can change them back," said the Doctor confidently.

Now Annie was looking in the same direction as Annie and could see the movement as well. "Doctor," she said slightly more forcefully.

"Now where would one hide if they were going to convert a village into fish people?" the Doctor wondered aloud.

Both Lana and Annie just kept looking past him and could see the movement increasing. "Doctor!" they both shouted in unison. The Doctor stopped talking at that and Lana pointed behind them. "They're regaining consciousness," she said.

"Right then," said the Doctor. "Run!"

They all made a quick dash for the end of the park which was framed by a large wrought iron gate. Lana and Annie got through ahead of him and the Doctor stopped long enough to close the gate and lock it with the sonic screwdriver.

At the end of the now empty street, the three of them ducked into an empty shop. Looking out the window to make sure no fish people had seen them enter, the Doctor said, "Check the back. Make sure there's no one." Lana gave Annie a nod and they each checked a different side of the store.

"Now back to the concern at hand," said the Doctor. "Where would one hide if they were going to convert a village into fish people?"

"Well you said it's in the water," reasoned Lana. "There must be some sort of water treatment plant around here." She had her phone out and hit a few buttons. "Damn. I still don't have any service. I was going to look it up."

"Give me that," said the Doctor, taking the phone from her hand. He pulsated his sonic screwdriver over the back of it and handed it back to her. "There, now you can get service anywhere."

In a few moments, Lana found the answer. "The water treatment plant is 4 blocks north of here."

"How are we going to get there past all the fish people wandering the streets?" asked Annie.

"Can't you just use your screwdriver thing to knock them all unconscious again?" asked Lana.

"No," said the Doctor. "It only has limited range when emitting these types of sounds. It would take some type of amplifier to knock out a four block radius, and if I just kept setting it off continuously it would start to damage your ears."

"Would one amplified boom damage our ears if we have earplugs?" asked Lana.

"Well, no," said the Doctor. "But I'd still need a way to amplify it and you would need earplugs."

"I have earplugs," said Lana. "Annie, what would it take for you to put together an amplifier?"

Without hesitation, Annie answered, "Two cardboard boxes, one smaller than the other, something to use as a screen, and a large rubber band. Oh, and something sharp, like a knife or scissors."

Lana was already pulling out the rubber band, a torn pair of fishnet stockings, and a box cutter out of her purse. "I'll bet there are boxes in the shop here somewhere."

Annie was already rummaging behind the counter. "Found some!" Within two minutes Annie had created a small makeshift amplifier.

Lana handed Annie a pair of earplugs, then offered a pair to the Doctor. "Do you need some, Doctor? Or are your time lord ears stronger than ours?" she asked with a hint of amusement.

The Doctor stared at these strange American girls perplexed. "The two of you are absolutely brilliant! Let's go!"

Lana, Annie, and the Doctor stepped cautiously outside. It wasn't long before the fish people on the street noticed them and started walking toward them, arms outstretched. The Doctor sent the same sound wave trough the makeshift amplifier with the sonic screwdriver. All the fish people in sight fell unconscious as the sound wave caused the ground to vibrate. "OK," said the Doctor. "We haven't got much time. I'd say about, oh," he quickly glanced at his watch, "ten minutes. Lana, which way?"

"This way," she beckoned, and the three of them began running down the street.

When they got to the water treatment plant the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to unlock the front door and the three stepped inside. "What are we looking for?" whispered Annie.

"There should be some sort of lab where the enzymes are being added," answered the Doctor. They turned a corner and found a security desk with a computer. "Here's the ticket!" said the Doctor and he started pulsating his screwdriver over the computer to locate the information.


	3. Getting Away

The three found the room they were looking for and Annie and Lana gasped at what they saw. "What are those?" said Annie.

"They're Selachii," answered the Doctor. "From the planet Selachimorpha."

"They're shark people," said Lana.

"Basically, yes," said the Doctor. "But what are they doing here?" The three of them were walking cautiously on a walkway above the lab. Suddenly, they reached a weak spot and the walkway gave way beneath them, causing them to tumble to the lower level and drawing the attention of the sharks.

"Tresspassers," said the leader. "Seize them!"

"Wait, stop!" yelled the Doctor, pulling the sonic screwdriver out so the sharks could see. "I'm armed!"

"What are you doing here?" asked the leader.

"I just want to talk," said the Doctor. "We can talk right? What are you doing on Earth? You're a long way from Selachimorpha."

"We are breeding our next generation," answered the leader.

"Well there's a slight problem with that," said the Doctor. "It is against the laws of the Shadow Proclamation to seed on a level five planet. And what are you doing here anyway? You should be able to breed on your own planet just fine."

"The hosts of our home planet died," answered the shark. "Without a host, our eggs will not thrive. We are not concerned with the Shadow Proclamation. Who will stop us?"

"I will," he responded evenly. "I'm the Doctor. I will give you a choice. You will reverse the nanobots and leave this planet or I will stop you."

The sharks laughed. "How are you going to stop us? You can't reverse the enzymes. Our children will rise."

The Doctor held the sonic screwdriver out at the sharks. "One last chance," he said. "I'm asking nicely. This will put out an electromagnetic pulse that will cripple you." The sharks continued to laugh, and the Doctor activated the pulse.

The sharks doubled over, writhing in pain. The leader said, "We will return to our home planet but our children will live and flourish on this planet." The sharks then dematerialized before their eyes.

"Where did they go?" asked Annie.

"They went back to their ship," answered the Doctor. "Probably heading back to their home planet like they said. They don't need to be here for their children to thrive. We'll need to find a way to reverse the nanobots ourselves." He started scanning the room with the screwdriver. The Doctor found the device he needed. "Here we are!" he exclaimed happily. But just then a group of angry fish people burst into the room.

"No! I need more time!" shouted the Doctor. "Can you two hold them off for a few minutes?"

"We'll do our best," Lana responded.

"Ooh, more fun," said Annie.

Annie starting throwing punches at the fish people and Lana found a crowbar on the floor and starting swinging it about. The Doctor furiously started sonicing the device that would deactivate the nanobots.

A few minutes later the Doctor managed the reverse the process and the fish melted back into normal people before their eyes. The people looked confused. "Where are we? What happened?" asked one.

The Doctor ran over and clapped his hands on the man's shoulders and said, "Don't worry. Everything's going to be alright."

* * *

When it was all over, the three of them walked down the street back toward the bed and breakfast. Lana and Annie were gleefully singing "We Are the Champions" by Queen as they walked.

"You two really like to sing don't you?" said the Doctor.

"Got a problem with that?" asked Annie, as she calmly lit up a cigarette.

"The singing, we'll see. But you know those can kill you," he responded, nodding toward the cigarette.

"So can fighting shark people," Annie replied. "I didn't hear you saying anything about that."

"And on that subject," Lana interjected, "do you care to explain a little better who you are now that we're not in danger for our lives? What exactly is a time lord?"

"Oh, I'm from another planet," responded the Doctor casually.

"Mmph," said Lana. "And what exactly does that police box outside the bed and breakfast have to do with you?"

"That's my spaceship," said the Doctor calmly. "It also travels in time."

"I knew that wasn't there last night."

Annie shoved her sister lightly. "Yeah, Lana. You're right again. Go ahead and rub it in why don't you?"

"But you two are what's really intriguing," said the Doctor. "The two of you are psychically linked. You complement each other perfectly. It's common to see a link like this in twins, but you are years apart in age. It's almost as if you are two parts of a whole, but not quite. Something's missing."

Lana gave the Doctor a skeptical look. "You got all that and you just met us today?"

"Well I usually can pick up on these sorts of things," said the Doctor, "seeing as how I'm brilliant."

"I'm glad to see you haven't let that go to your head," said Lana.

"Lana, you should talk," Annie interjected. "I'm not used to people having bigger heads than you."

"Are you saying I should do something about that?" Lana teased. She looked at the Doctor. "Are you challenging me?" she asked with a wink.

Annie lightly shoved her sister and the Doctor started to laugh with a big grin on his face. "Oh ho ho! You're clever, you both are, I'll give you that. For humans, that is. But you're not as clever as me."

By now the three were approaching the bed and breakfast and the blue police box was clearly visible at the top of the hill. "It doesn't look like much of a spaceship," said Annie.

"Well," said the Doctor. "Why don't you have a look inside?" He opened the door with a confident snap of his fingers.

Annie stepped in first. "You know, Lana," she called out. "I think you could probably fit more in here than in your trunk."

Lana then stepped inside and looked around. "You know," she said, "I think you're right."

The Doctor popped in behind them. "Well what do you think?" He was waiting for their reaction and dancing on the balls of his feet. "Welcome aboard the TARDIS."

"It looks more like a spaceship on the inside," said Annie, dryly.

The Doctor was slightly taken aback. "It looks more like a spaceship on the inside? Usually people say it's bigger on the inside! Aren't you impressed?"

Lana scoffed. "Is that what this is about? You're trying to impress us?"

"Oh, come now," said the Doctor. "I can go anywhere is time and space. You don't think that's impressive? I'm about to show you things you never even dreamed possible. No smoking on my TARDIS though," he added the last with a sharp glance in Annie's direction.

Annie leaned in to her sister, "Yes, he's definitely trying to impress us."

"You assume we're going with you?" asked Lana with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course you're coming with me," said the Doctor.

"What makes you so sure of that?" asked Lana.

"Oh, you'll come," said the Doctor confidently. "Lana, you're seeking that extra knowledge and Annie, you're looking for that great adventure."

"Again, you got all that from just meeting us?" asked Lana.

"Tell me I'm wrong," challenged the Doctor.

"You know we were wanting to get away for a wee bit," said Lana.

"You're right," said Annie. "Scotland wasn't far enough."

"All right," said Lana. "We'll go since you're so dead set on impressing us."

"For the record," said Annie, "that doesn't mean we trust you."

"That's right," said Lana. "We don't trust doctors."

"Well that's just something I'll have to work on," said the Doctor.

Half an hour later, they had checked out of the bed and breakfast and brought their luggage onto the TARDIS. Lana had arranged to have the rental car picked up, and they were ready to leave.

"Can I drive?" asked Annie.

"No, of course not," said the Doctor, disapprovingly as he flipped switches around the main console.

"It was worth a try."

"Right," said the Doctor. "I hope you're both ready for the ride of your life." With the final flip of a lever, the TARDIS lurched into motion.


	4. 63rd Century

The TARDIS came to a stop and the Doctor ran excitedly over to the door. "Well," he said with an expectant look to his new companions, "care to have a look?" Lana and Annie followed him out and looked around. They were on the main flight deck of a large spaceship. A number of people were milling around going about their business. One wall stood as an expansive glass window to show the depths of space.

"Where are we?" Annie spoke first in an awed voice. For all the trouble they had given the Doctor about trying to impress them, they were in fact impressed.

The Doctor could see that and proudly told them, "We are somewhere in the Alpha Titan Nebula, about 4200 years in your future."

A cool female voice came over an intercom, "All crew are reminded that the new ID upgrade will commence in two hours. Please arrive at the medical bay for inoculations at your designated time."

Upon hearing this, Lana shot a questioning look back to the Doctor. "Does everybody speak English in the future, or did we just get lucky?"

"Actually," said the Doctor as he straighten his bow tie, "they are speaking 63rd century Unitanglish. You're hearing English because the TARDIS is translating for you."

"Mmmph, well I guess that beats a fish in your ear," said Lana offhandedly.

"What?" asked the Doctor, perplexed.

"Oh, nothing," she waved him off. "I just feel a bit like a hitchhiker, that's all." Suddenly, a loud samba tune could be heard from Lana's bag.

"Isn't that your ringtone for Ma?" asked Annie with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," responded Lana, equally confused as she retrieved her cell phone from her bag. "How is Ma calling me 4200 years in the future?"

"I told you," said the Doctor. "Now you can get service anywhere. Try to keep up. Oh, and sorry in advance about the bill."

"How is that possible?" asked Lana.

"Oh, a bit of complicated technology a little ahead of your time," answered the Doctor offhandedly. "Aren't you going to answer that? You don't want your Mum to worry."

"Hello?" Lana hesitantly answered her phone.

"There you are!" Bonnie's voice came over the line. "I was starting to worry because Annie isn't answering her phone."

"We are on vacation, Ma," responded Lana with a roll of her eyes. "I'm sure Annie's phone just went out of service range."

"How's Scotland, then?" asked Bonnie.

"It's…" Lana hesitated, looking for the right word, "an adventure."

"Well is Annie with you?" asked Bonnie. "I just want to make sure she's ok after all that wedding business."

"She's fine, Ma," responded Lana. "She's right here." Annie was violently shaking her head and making hand gestures that she didn't want to talk. Lana put her hand over the phone so their mother wouldn't hear. "You're going to have to talk to her, or I won't be able to get rid of her."

Annie took the phone in a huff, "Hi, Ma. I'm fine. No post wedding meltdown here. Everything's super!" She spoke the words in a rapid fire stream and tossed the phone back to Lana before Bonnie could respond.

Lana held the phone back up to her ear. "See, Ma? She's fine."

"Well she doesn't need to be so testy with me," said Bonnie with a slight edge to her voice.

"Can we wrap this up?" interjected the Doctor impatiently as he threw an arm around each of their shoulders. "I didn't bring you here so you can spend the whole time chatting with your Mum."

Bonnie piped in upon hearing that, "Oh is that a man's voice I hear? Did you find yourself a man in Scotland, Lana? Does he have a lot of money? I'm sure he's going to love your mother. Is he wearing a kilt?"

Lana's patience was starting to wear thin. Their mother always did this to her. "Ma, he's just a new friend. And no, he's not wearing a kilt, he's not even Scottish."

"Well you should be sure to find a kilted man while you're there," said Bonnie. "One with money who likes your mother."

"OK, well I won't find any if I keep talking to you. Love you, bye!" Lana let the words out quickly before her mother could protest and hung up.

"So, your Mum sounds lovely," said the Doctor casually.

"She was able to call because you upgraded my phone?" Lana asked to verify.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" asked the Doctor with a joyful grin on his face.

Lana nodded in agreement. "You should upgrade Annie's as well."

Annie was very quick to interject, "No, you don't have to. That's ok. I'm sure it's probably way too much trouble."

The Doctor looked at her confused. "It's no trouble." He had already pulled out his sonic screwdriver and was holding his hand out for Annie's phone.

Lana raised an eyebrow at her sister. "See, Annie? He says it's no trouble."

Annie crossed her arms and said, "Look! I don't need Ma calling me and nagging me in the 63rd century. It's bad enough she can call your phone."

Lana persisted. "What if I want to call you? We are on a 63rd century space ship as you've so accurately pointed out. What if we get separated?"

"She's right," said the Doctor. "Best hand it over just in case. Although I'll tell you now that you really shouldn't wander off. You could get into trouble. Let me just state for the record right now that I have officially told you not to wander off."

"I really don't want the damn upgrade," Annie insisted.

"Hand it over, or I'll take you back right now," the Doctor threatened. "What's it going to be?"

"Fine," Annie huffed, handing over the phone. The Doctor ran the sonic screwdriver over it and handed it back.

Lana smiled triumphantly. "Besides, if I have to deal with Ma, then so do you." Annie lightly shoved her sister.

"Excuse me!" shouted a man from behind the three. They turned around to see him approaching, a middle aged man with military haircut and a stocky build. "This area is being cleared for sterilization. Crew members are to report to their designated areas."

The Doctor stepped forward to greet the man confidently. "Oh, we're not crew, we're visitors. What kind of sterilization? And I heard something over the com system about inoculations and new IDs?"

"Visitors?" the man admonished. "This is a government contracted exploration ship, not a luxury tour. We don't entertain tourists here. Official personnel only. I'm going to need to see some credentials."

The Doctor confidently pulled an ID folder out of his jacket pocket and handed it off to the man. "I think you'll find everything in order."

"A surprise inspection?" the man exclaimed upon inspecting it. "Today? Well my apologies, but you and your assistants will still need to check in. I'll page the captain to let him know you're here." With that, the man turned around and walked off.

As soon as the man was out of sight, the Doctor turned around and started walking quickly in the opposite direction, leaving Lana and Annie to make a dash to catch up with him. "Assistants?" demanded Annie. "I don't know what you're playing at, but I didn't come along to work for you for free."

"Well you sort of did," said the Doctor. "Although you are getting the wonders of time and space out of the deal, so there's that."

"Why does that man think you're here for an inspection?" asked Lana. "You handed him a blank piece of paper, I saw it."

Upon hearing that the Doctor stopped so suddenly that Lana and Annie almost ran into him and he swung around to face them. "That paper looked blank to you?" Lana nodded slowly, looking at the Doctor with open suspicion on her face. "Did you see the paper?" he directed toward Annie.

"Yeah," she answered. "Looked blank to me."

"Interesting," he said slowly, then just as suddenly as his initial stop, he spun around and began walking again at the same quick pace as if the short exchange had never happened, causing Lana and Annie to have to catch back up with him again.

"Well I don't understand," Lana persisted. "Is the paper blank or isn't it?"

"It is blank," said the Doctor, not slowing his stride.

"Then why are you so surprised that we're saying it's blank?" Lana continued. "And why does that man think you're here for an inspection? Are you actually some member of the intergalactic health department who just uses a time ship as a cheap way to pick up Earth girls?"

"Well it could be," said the Doctor with a smirk. "I heard Earth girls are easy."

"Hey!" Lana and Annie exclaimed in unison as Annie hit the Doctor's arm.

"Sorry!" said the Doctor. "Bad joke, I couldn't resist. The paper is blank with a psychic field around it. Psychic paper, it's called. It shows people whatever I want or need them to see. Thing is, you should've seen it too."

"What does that mean for us exactly?" asked Annie.

"That you're even more clever than I thought," said the Doctor as they rounded a corner into a long corridor.

"That'll show you to underestimate us!" said Annie with a smug look on her face.

"You still haven't told us where we're going!" Lana exclaimed.

"There's something wrong here," said the Doctor. "I'm not sure what, but a government exploration ship of this size should still get routine visitors and any inoculation and ID protocols should have been handled before they left their home planet. Sterilization suggests some sort of disease, but if that were the case they'd be under quarantine. No, there's something else going on here."

They came to a closed metal door and the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open it from the security keypad. They entered a room full of computer towers where the Doctor started pulsing his screwdriver around a touch screen monitor, talking to himself as he worked. "Let's see what we have here…ship originating from the Celexa branch of the Human Empire, government exploration ship just like he said, crew of about 5000…that all seems to be in order."

"What are you looking for exactly?" asked Lana, curiously.

"Anything…off," said the Doctor.

"Could you be a little more specific? That's just a wee bit vague," said Lana.

"I'll know it when I see it," said the Doctor.

"Here I thought we'd come to the future and do something fun," said Annie. "Instead we're standing around some off limits room while you play junior detective."

"Well if you want something to do, you can watch the door for anyone coming," said the Doctor, irritably.

"Ooh, lookout!" said Annie, her words dripped in sarcasm. "That's a real improvement!" But she did step just outside the door and started visually scanning the halls. She lit up a cigarette while she waited.

Lana looked over the Doctor's shoulder to see the computer monitor. "It says they have a new captain. Do you think he could've ordered the new IDs?"

"Most likely," answered the Doctor. "But why?"

"Well they already think you're here for an inspection," Lana pointed out. "Why don't we go talk to him?"


	5. Guard Life

Outside the room, Annie took a long drag of her cigarette, inhaling the sweet nicotine. She didn't care how bad it was for her health, it was incredibly relaxing to her. It was enough to let her momentarily ignore the fact that she was playing lookout for some ridiculous Scooby Doo time traveling bow tie wearing alien. She closed her eyes for a second and focused on the feeling of tobacco filling her lungs, and let it ebb her constant anger briefly away. She opened her eyes to see three men pointing large guns at her. It was at this moment that she realized that she was standing directly in front of a "No Smoking" sign. She nonchalantly dropped the butt on the metal floor and put it out with the heel of her sneaker. "Hey, fellas! Sorry about that, I didn't see the sign. Are we good?" She spoke loudly, hoping the Doctor and Lana could hear her in the next room. The men didn't lower their guns. Annie slowly raised her hands in the air, and said slightly louder, "You guys really take that seriously huh? Do I need to pay a fine then? Well I don't have any money, but I'm sure we can work something out right?" She threw a sly wink at them hoping to break through their stony exterior.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" asked one of the men. "This area is out of bounds."

"Annie Anderson," she answered. "And smoking a cigarette. I thought that was obvious. Admittedly, against the rules. I'm really sorry about that. Won't happen again. So if you stop pointing guns at me, I can go on about my day, and you can go on about yours."

"I'm afraid we can't do that, miss," said the man. "You're going to have to come with us."

At that point, the Doctor poked his head around the corner. "Oh, hello," he said cheerfully. "She's with me. I'm the Doctor; I'm here for the surprise inspection." The men moved their guns to aim at him. "Oh, come on. Guns? Really? For a simple inspection? Surely you're better than that?" One of the men audibly cocked the gun ready to fire at him. "OK then. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this." He quickly pointed his sonic screwdriver at each the men in turn to shock the guns out of their hands. "Run!" he yelled, grabbing Annie by the hand. "Lana! That means you, too!" Lana came running out of the room trailing behind them.

"What have you gotten us into?" Lana yelled as they ran.

"I don't know," the Doctor yelled back. "I'm still working on that!"

"Well that's just flipping fantastic!" she yelled back.

"I think this is kind of fun!" yelled Annie. "This is much better than playing lookout!"

They turned the corner only to run directly into another group of armed guards. They were surrounded with nowhere to go. "Fun huh?" said Lana.

"Maybe slightly less so now," said Annie.

One of the guards seized Lana's bag and looked through it. The first thing he retrieved was her phone. "What is this device?" he asked accusingly.

"It's a cell phone," Lana answered defensively.

"It's an antique," scoffed the guard.

"I collect things from the 21st century," she responded smoothly.

"It's all ancient and useless," he said, sifting through the bag's other contents. He tossed the bag aside haphazardly. "You will come with us."

This time the three of them compliantly followed as they were told, no other escape easily presenting itself. The Doctor leaned in to Lana, "That was a clever lie, just there. I'm glad you can think on your feet."

At those words, Lana turned a sharp glare at the Doctor, and Annie let out a snicker. "You shouldn't have said that," Annie said.

Lana ignored her sister and hissed at the Doctor, "I don't tell lies. Lies are abhorrent. One thing I am not is a liar."

"Well what do you call what you just told them then?" asked the Doctor irritably.

"The truth," said Lana. "Seeing as how I am from the 21st century, it would in fact be rather difficult for me not to collect items from that time period."

The Doctor opened his mouth as if to argue further with her, paused, then closed it again. After a moment he begrudgingly said, "I suppose you have a point, there."

"So what happens now?" asked Lana dryly. "Is this the part where they arrest us and we rot away in a 63rd century prison?"

"No, no, don't be ridiculous," said the Doctor in a somewhat reassuring tone. "They'll execute us if this ever goes to trial," he added in as casually as if he had just suggested that they all sit down to tea.

"And here we just wanted to get away for a little bit," said Annie.

"Oi! You lot!" the Doctor yelled at the guards who had been ignoring them. "Where are we going?"

"You'll be taken into holding until the ship completes ID upgrades and inoculations," answered the guard.

They were taken into what appeared to be a conference room and locked in. The Doctor started pacing the room. Annie lit up a cigarette. Lana started running her hand through her hair and tapping her fingers on the table, a nervous tick she had.

"That's really bad for your health," the Doctor scolded Annie.

"Hey!" Annie snapped, with an exhale of smoke. "You just said that we could be executed and I'm not even sure what we've done because you've dragged us into trouble. I'm pretty sure that will kill me before the cigarettes."

"What's going on here that we need to investigate?" asked Lana exasperated. "You haven't said, and it's making it a bit difficult for us to go along with you right now."

The Doctor continued pacing. "I don't know. Something with this inoculation is fishy. We need to get out of here and find more information before they start. Everyone on this ship could be in danger."

"Well I'm all for getting out of this room, so no arguments there," said Lana. "But how?"

"Well," said Annie, peering through a small glass pane on the door, "they can't think of us as too much of a threat; there's only one guard now."

"Well if we can distract him, we should be able to get out of here easily enough," said the Doctor.

"Ooh," said Annie. "I know! Lana, you pretend to be sick. Lie on the floor with that skirt hiked up to scandalous lengths, and when he comes in to investigate, I'll punch him in the face!"

"So violent," the Doctor scolded.

Lana gave her sister a skeptical look. "Really? One inept guard and the sick prisoner routine? What are we on the Starship Cliché?"

"Well do you have any better ideas?" asked Annie.

"I don't know," said Lana, exasperated. "Show tunes?"

The Doctor was ignoring them both and pulsating his sonic over the door. In a moment, the door was open. The guard took notice immediately and tried to stop them. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" he shouted.

"Well I was just stepping out for a spot of air while my friends argue over how to best distract you," said the Doctor casually. "Normally, I would have stayed and pretended to listen until I came up with something sufficiently brilliant, but they were threatening show tunes and I thought maybe I'd come out and have a chat with you. So how are you? How's guard life treating you?"

The guard was young, probably no more than eighteen, and was so surprised by the Doctor's words that he answered. "OK I guess."

"What's your name?" asked the Doctor.

"Keith, sir," he answered.

"You don't need to call me sir, I'm the Doctor. Keith, that's a great name Keith. Now, you have a new captain on this ship. When did that happen?"

"Change of command at the last outpost, sir," answered Keith. "On planet Exilon."

"Exilon, Exilon, Exilon, what do I know about Exilon?" the Doctor muttered to himself. "Wait a tic, Exilon?" He smacked his palm across his forehead. "Exilon! Oh, this is not good. This is extra very not good. Keith, this is important and you need to trust me. I need to get to the new captain before the inoculations and ID upgrades begin."

Keith raised his gun to aim at the Doctor again. "I don't think so, sir. I have orders to keep you here in this room!"

Before the Doctor could attempt to convince Keith to lower his weapon, they were both distracted by a small red dot that appeared on the wall next to them. When Keith looked back to the Doctor, Annie was between them with her fist raised and she punched him in the face hard enough to knock him out cold. Lana came out of the room, jingling a set of keys with a laser pointer keychain.

"You didn't have to hurt him," admonished the Doctor. "I was starting to like Keith."

"Oh, we have to get out of this room, he says," Annie mocked, "but don't punch the guy pointing a gun at me, I kinda like him!"

"You did say to distract him," Lana rationally pointed out. "I think we can get past him now. What's all this about Exilon?"

"Exilon is the home planet of the Argenta virus. They get aboard space craft and infect everyone," explained the Doctor.

"So you think the new captain is carrying this Argenta virus?" asked Lana.

"The new captain is the Argenta virus," said the Doctor.

"The captain is the Argenta virus? What does that even mean?" asked Annie.

"The virus takes the form of the most prevalent life form on a ship in order to blend in. The inoculations will convert everyone on this ship to the Argenta virus. And when that's done, the ship will crash on some unsuspecting planet and the survivors will start the process over again with a new ship," said the Doctor.

"Wait, a virus can do that?" asked Lana with genuine curiosity.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "And if we don't stop it, everyone on this ship will die."

"Huh!" said Lana, surprised. "I learned something new today. I haven't done that in awhile." Her face lit up with a pleased smile.

"Of course you learned something new today," said the Doctor dismissively. "I just showed you that time travel was possible."

"Well I was already pretty sure that was possible," countered Lana. "Admittedly was not expecting the mode of travel to be a blue police box, but that's just an anomalous detail, not a brand new concept."

"Um, Doctor?" Annie interjected. "Your buddy here is waking up."

"Oh, right," said the Doctor, looking down at Keith's fetal form to see him slowing moving his muscles back into consciousness. "We should probably run."

The three took off down the hall as Keith reached over to him walkie talkie. "This is Private King, reporting. The intruders have escaped and are proceeding down the Delta corridor toward the Gamma Quadrant."

The Doctor, Lana, and Annie continued to run hoping to get ahead of the guards this time. They came to an intersection in the corridors to see guards approaching from one direction and they took a quick turn in the other direction to avoid them. Lana was running slightly behind the other two trying to keep up. She had never been a big fan of running. A family friend had once suggested to her that she join the track team when she was in high school and she had laughed at the proposition. She thought that between the fish people and this spaceship she had likely done more running in the last 24 hours than she had done in her entire 28 years of life. That was the last thought she had before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her skull. She saw a brief white flash in front of her that seemed to be the same color as her pain and then blackness.


	6. Virus

Annie and the Doctor turned another corner far ahead of the guards and then ducked into an empty room. Annie breathed a sigh of relief as the guards passed them and focused on catching her breath. The Doctor seamed physically unaffected by the chase. Suddenly she realized, "Where's Lana?"

The Doctor quickly and discreetly peeked out the door and back in the direction they had come from and could see Lana's limp form being carried away by one of their pursuers. "They have her," he said simply.

Annie rounded on the Doctor, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket and pulling him in so her face was menacingly close to his as she spoke. "Listen here, you bow tie wearing buffoon! That is my sister! And this is your fault! If she is hurt, so help me I will knock your stupid alien teeth into the back of your throat, got it?"

"We'll get her back," said the Doctor as calmly as he could. "She will be fine as long as we stop the virus."

Annie released her grip with a rough shove causing the Doctor to stumble backwards a few paces. She wasn't sure if she could trust the Doctor, but begrudgingly she said, "What do we need to do?"

* * *

Lana's consciousness returned like a slow clearing of a fog. Her vision returned blurry at first and then gradually aligned into focus. Once her vision returned, she became distantly aware of the sound of movement around her. Finally, a full recollection of her situation came back to her. She remembered the Doctor, the spaceship, the guards, the virus. In assessing her situation, she found that she was bound to a chair. She gave a subtle tug at her restraints and determined that she would not be able to escape on her own easily. She could hear that there was somebody nearby but they weren't in the room with her.

She mentally cursed herself for finding herself in this position. She knew nothing about the Doctor and had an ingrained distrust for new people and doctors in particular. Never trust a doctor! And yet, she had done the uncharacteristically impulsive thing and agreed to go with him. She wished she could attribute this foolish act to the temptation of time and space travel or that she could tell herself she was running from her recent job loss, but she knew there was something deeper to this decision that she didn't understand yet. And Lana hated not knowing the answers. And the worst part of this, was that Annie was likely in danger somewhere while she was tied up here helpless. Annie had a headstrong nature and was certainly drawn by the Doctor's promise of adventure, but Lana knew that if she had acted as the beacon of control, if she had said it was a bad idea, then Annie would have listened and stayed. Her sister was here because of her.

She tried to center her mind on escape. It would be the only way to be sure Annie was safe. And while she didn't trust the Doctor completely, she knew he genuinely wanted to save the people on board, and Lana couldn't stand by and let those people die either. Not if there was a way to help. Furthermore, he was their only way home. Lana and Annie could die on this spaceship 4200 years and who knew how many miles away from home and their mother would never know. And they had both been so tetchy with her when they had talked to her. Lana didn't want that to be the last conversation she ever had with her mother.

"Focus, Lana," she muttered to herself irritably. Feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to help anybody.

"Back with us are we?" came a mocking voice from behind her. She perked her head up, alert and acutely aware that the owner of the voice was not friendly. A man walked into view who could only be the infamous new captain, the Argenta virus from Exilon. He looked like an ordinary human, but Lana supposed that meant the virus just did a very good job of blending in.

"This is nice and all," said Lana with a nod to her restraints, "but I usually make a guy buy me dinner before he ties me up."

The captain ignored her remarks. "You're here with the Doctor," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Doctor who?" responded Lana innocently. She thought it was a fair enough question since she really didn't know herself.

"Don't play coy, Ms. Anderson," he sneered.

"How do you know who I am?" she asked. Now she was really suspicious. They had never given their names to anyone on board and she could think of no other logical reason for him to know who she was.

"I know your association with the Doctor and that's enough. He always comes to rescue his beloved companions." As the man sauntered around the room with a cocky gait, Lana thought back to her earlier sarcastic remarks. She decided that this must be the Starship Cliché and now she was stuck in the repulsive role of damsel in distress. The man spoke like the Doctor had a reputation as a hero, but Lana couldn't be sure if she could depend on him or not. She had so many questions about everything, but she refused to let this man see her doubt. She wondered how long she could keep the act up.

* * *

The Doctor and Annie had managed to make it back into the computer room and the Doctor was working furiously at the screen while explaining the plan. "The virus will have worked a mass perception filter into the system so that no one would question him. If I can reverse that, then we can get another high ranking official to relieve him of his command. We just need to find someone before the inoculations begin, or it will be too late." After a moment, "Got it!"

He handed Annie the psychic paper. "Take this," he instructed. "Find someone, anyone, and tell them the captain is Argenta. They should know what to do." He then ran off down the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Annie yelled after him.

"To get your sister!" he yelled back. "Geronimo!"

* * *

"Aren't you afraid?" the captain mocked Lana.

"Afraid? Of what?" Lana bravely mocked right back. "I'm afraid of snakes, sure. Not a big fan of needles, either. But afraid of you? Not a chance." It was true, she wasn't afraid of this man. What she didn't say was that she was afraid of him converting the whole ship into a crash waiting to happen, but he didn't need to know that.

Suddenly, the image of the man flickered in and out in front of her, like television static. Lana blinked a few times to readjust her mind to what she now saw. It was the same man, but his skin was covered in green and blue mold patches. "I don't understand what's happening!" he yelled in outrage.

"That would be me!" said the Doctor striding into the room. "Took out your perception filter, you should be ejected from the ship as soon as a ranking official gets here."

"I can still infect you!" sneered the virus, moving toward the Doctor.

The Doctor quickly stepped backward and started circling the room. "Not me, no!" he said smoothly, obviously having expected this. "All up to date with my booster shots, me. Not to mention superior time lord physiology."

"Then I shall infect your companion," he responded and moved in Lana's direction. Lana tensed up in the chair, but before he reached her, he fell to the ground.

"Oh, did I forget to mention?" added the Doctor. "I've pumped this room full of antibodies as well." He swiftly got to Lana and untied her.

"Where's Annie?" she said without preamble.

"Oi, I just saved your life," said the Doctor indignantly. "A thank you might be nice."

Lana paused and blinked at him a couple times. "Thank you," she said. "Where's Annie?"

"Right here," said Annie entering the room with an official following behind her. The two sisters ran to each other and met in a tight hug.

"You're alright!" said Lana relieved.

"You're worried about me?" asked Annie incredulous. "You're the one who was tied up by a mad virus."

"Can you believe he didn't even buy me dinner?" quipped Lana.

"Did he at least buy you a drink?" responded Annie.

"No," said Lana with a shake of her head.

"The indecency of it!" laughed Annie.

"Is this the virus?" asked the official.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "He's harmless, now that the antibodies have gone to work, but you may want to remove him from the ship just in case."

"Consider it done," said the man. "I believe the people of this ship are indebted to you, sir."

* * *

The Doctor, Lana, and Annie stood outside the TARDIS after it was all done. "Is it always like this with you?" Lana asked the Doctor.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "It is dangerous. Do you want me to take you home?"

"What sort of a question is that?" the two demanded in unison.

"I had an adventure," said Annie eagerly, thriving on the thrill of it all.

"And I learned something new," added Lana, tempted by new knowledge despite the danger.

"Come off it, you bow tie wearing buffoon," said Annie, somewhat affectionately.

"You can't get rid of us that easily," Lana added.

"Well then," said the Doctor with a grin on his face, "off to the next adventure then, eh?"

"Can I drive?" asked Annie with a smirk.


	7. Exploring the TARDIS

Lana, Annie, and Adam were being led into a medical laboratory. The fluorescent lights cast a harsh glare off of the sharp sterile instruments and equipment that seemed to overcrowd the room. Sam Anderson stood behind them blocking the door with a blank, hollow look in his eyes.

"Daddy, why are we here?" asked Lana, 12 years old and terrified. Her father didn't answer; he didn't even look at her.

Against one wall was an antique white claw footed bathtub with monitoring equipment surrounding it. A man in a white lab coat surveyed the readings on one of the machines while making notes on a clipboard. His back was turned to them, his face obscured from view.

Adam was led into the tub first, his small toddler body being lifted in by Sam and he was laid down inside and out of sight. The man in the lab coat fiddled with some knobs on the instruments until suddenly a golden light erupted from the tub, illuminating the room. "What's happening?" Lana whimpered, even more frightened. Her father and the stranger continued to ignore her.

The light faded after about 30 seconds, but it felt much longer than that. Sam lifted Adam out of the tub and laid him out on a medical gurney. He looked limp and lifeless. "Is he ok?" asked Lana, pleading at this point for her father to answer her. He didn't.

Next, Sam took Annie by the hand and led her stoically to the tub. At age 8 she was big enough to get into the tub herself with a step stool. "No, no," Lana whimpered. Everyone ignored her, and once again the process was repeated, a fiddling of dials, the gold light, and Sam lifted Annie's body and laid her out next to Adam.

Sam took Lana's hand to lead her in next. She struggled against him and cried, but he forcibly dragged her over to the tub. She fought him, flailing her young arms at her father. As she was being forced into the tub, she looked up and could see the face of the man in the lab coat. It was the Doctor.

* * *

Lana woke up with a gasp of breath. She forced herself to slow her breathing and center her mind back to rational thought. It was an old recurring nightmare she used to have as a child, but she hadn't had that dream in years. It was the same dream but for the presence of the Doctor. When she was a child she had never seen the man's face. But she also remembered always instinctively thinking the man was a doctor.

Lana assumed that the dream came back up as a way for her subconscious to remind her that she didn't trust the Doctor or know anything about him. In her waking rational mind, she didn't really think the Doctor was the man from her nightmares. But now Lana was shaken and thoroughly awake.

She tried to go back to sleep and found that she couldn't. So she decided to get up and look around the TARDIS for a bit until her mind calmed down. She slipped on a navy blue bathrobe over the plain t-shirt and yoga pants she usually slept in and quietly stepped into the hallway. She tried to be quiet as she padded along, not wanting to wake Annie or the Doctor.

The corridors seemed to go on forever, and for all she knew they did. The Doctor had told them the ship was telepathic, but Lana hadn't taken him at his word until they were shown their bedrooms. From the unassuming gray hallway, they were just two innocuous doors side by side. Annie's room was on the left. Her walls had a vibrant crimson red sponge pattern over a gold background and were decorated with various framed movie posters, Boondock Saints, Avengers, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Sherlock Holmes. The room was furnished with a wood vanity with a large circular mirror and a luxurious canopy bed with crimson colored bedding with gold trim that matched the walls. On her bedside table was a blank sketch book with a flame pattern on the cover.

Lana's room was wallpapered in crisp vertical stripes in various shades of blues, purples, and greens. Around the room were an assortment of bouquets of roses, lilacs, lilies, and daisies. The room had a simple writing desk and the bed was made up with plain linen sheets in cobalt blue and a patchwork quilt. On her bedside table was a blank plain spiral notebook. They each had their own bathroom, but there was something noticeably missing from each room as well. "Where are we supposed to keep our clothes?" Lana had asked.

"The wardrobe is down the hall," the Doctor had answered leading them there. The wardrobe had been even more impressive than their bedrooms. It seemed to be somehow more expansive than the main console room. It was three floors, with a spiral staircase connecting them. It appeared to have clothing in every size, style, color, occasion, and time period.

So given what she had seen of the TARDIS so far, Lana wasn't concerned with which direction she took as she wandered the corridors. She was sure to find something amazing and also sure to find her way back. As she walked along, she found a kitchen which looked quite homey with a dining table in the center of it; then a swimming pool, extensive with a diving board at one end and with a whirlpool off in one corner. She found two different game rooms, one with a pool table, dart board, and several pinball machines; and another furnished with a simple table and shelves full of every board game and card game she'd ever heard of and dozens more that she hadn't.

Then she found the room that truly took her breath away. The library. This room had five floors with spiral staircases just like the wardrobe and glass floors at each landing like the console room. Every wall was lined with bookshelves and was filled to the brim floor to ceiling with books on every subject.

When the Doctor found Lana, she was curled up in a wing back armchair contentedly reading a three inch thick hard bound copy of _A Brief History of Raxacoricofallapatorius _with ear buds in attached to her phone, softly singing along "Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue. "I see you've made yourself at home," said the Doctor genially as he sat down in another armchair across from her.

Lana hadn't seen him coming and jumped with an involuntary yelp before removing her ear buds. "Don't scare me like that!" she demanded and the Doctor just laughed. "You don't mind that I borrowed some light reading do you?" she asked nodding to the bulky volume in her lap.

"That's light reading to you?" asked the Doctor. "I mean it is to me, but you're human. Can you even pronounce the title?"

Lana was a bit put off by the Doctor's slightly condescending tone. "Well I assume it's pronounced the way it looks," she responded. "Raxacoricofallapatorius," she pronounced it perfectly.

"You know I once went to the biggest library in the universe," said the Doctor. "The library was an entire planet with all the books in all of history and the core was a giant processor."

Lana's eyes got round as saucers at the idea of a library planet. "Can we go there?" she asked hopefully.

"Er, best not," said the Doctor, quickly changing the subject. "So tell me about your sister."

That got Lana to put her guard up. "What do you want to know?" she asked suspiciously.

"Anything," said the Doctor vaguely.

Lana didn't know what information the Doctor was fishing for and didn't trust it. "She's short tempered and headstrong," she said, "but fun when she's in a good mood."

"Well I already knew that," said the Doctor. "Tell me something I don't know."

Lana thought about that for a moment, not sure what to say. "Annie does a pretty good job of taking care of herself, but in those instances where she can't, I do," Lana stated firmly.

"I'll keep that in mind," said the Doctor. "Why did you choose that book, by the way? There are a lot of books in here that would be a bit more familiar to you."

It was true. Lana had seen selections by Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare, the entire collection of Harry Potter, books on ancient Egypt, Rome, and the French Revolution. She had seen books that were obviously from the future that dealt with subjects like World War V and an index of all 150 American presidents. But she knew the reason she had chosen this one. "I figured it would be helpful to read up on what else is out there in case we run into them," she said. "Selachii from Selachimorpha, the Argenta virus from Exilon, I didn't know anything about them. I'd like to be prepared."

"Well it's not a bad thought," said the Doctor. "But there are trillions of life forms in the universe. Most likely if you run into something new you still won't know what it is. But that's alright, because I'll be there."

"What if I don't want to just rely on you?" countered Lana. "I like to know things for myself. And I don't know anything about you either."

The Doctor considered that for a moment. "Hand me your phone," he said holding his hand out.

Lana gave him a questioning look. "You already upgraded it," she said.

"I know," he said. "I'm going to add another feature." After quickly typing something into her slide out keyboard he handed it back to her and showed her a new icon on the touch screen that looked like the outside of the TARDIS. "I've linked it up to the TARDIS's general information databank. If you take a picture of something new, it should identify it for you and give you some general information."

"How do I know this works until I run into something dangerous?" asked Lana.

"You can try it out now on me," offered the Doctor. Lana did want to try it out and she was also interested in some quick information about the Doctor. She held up her phone to snap a picture of him and he stuck out his tongue in a pose. That made Lana laugh as she scanned down at the information now on her screen.

The Doctor

Species: Time Lord

Planet of Origin: Gallifrey

Eleventh

Below this was some general information. "Well, what do you think?" asked the Doctor.

"Why are you British?" asked Lana.

"What?" asked the Doctor, perplexed.

"Well," Lana reasoned, "you said that the TARDIS translates for us because it's telepathic. This says you're from a planet called Gallifrey. I think it's safe to assume that English is not the native language of that planet which means the TARDIS is translating. But since I'm American, it would only make sense for you to be translated into American English. But you don't sound American. You're British. Why?"

"Well as a matter of fact I actually am speaking English to you," said the Doctor. "I speak all languages. As for the British part, I have no idea. I never really thought about it before. I suppose I do spend a lot of time there, maybe that's it. Speaking of which, you are American. What were you and your sister doing poking around a Scottish village when I found you?"

"Vacation," said Lana dismissively. "It was supposed to be Annie's honeymoon, but that didn't work out, so I came along instead."

"But why Scotland?" asked the Doctor.

"Well we're Scottish," said Lana.

"No, you're American," argued the Doctor.

"OK, I don't know how far in the future you come from, but in the 21st century most Americans still came from somewhere and recognize it. We came from Scotland. And the thing about the Scots, you let a group of them breed in America for a couple of centuries, they're still Scottish."

"That explains so much," said the Doctor.

"Eleventh, what does that mean?" she asked looking back over the screen.

"Well," said the Doctor, "when a time lord gets close to death, we regenerate. We replace every cell in our bodies and become a brand new person, new face, new personality, new everything, but keep all our memories."

"So you've had eleven different bodies?" asked Lana incredulous. "How old are you?"

"Oh, round about 1200," he answered casually.

Lana gave him an even more incredulous look. "Well if you live that long, then what do you want our company for? Wouldn't another time lord be better suited to you?"

A distant look came over the Doctor's face. "Maybe so, but there aren't any more. There was a war, and a bad day, with bad stuff, and now there's just me. I'm the last time lord."

"I'm sorry," said Lana because there was nothing else she could say. She didn't ask him anything else about it.

"But you," said the Doctor leaning in and gently tweaking her nose, "should go back to bed. Big day tomorrow."

"Why, what's tomorrow?" asked Lana.

"I have a time machine," said the Doctor. "It's always a big day tomorrow. I skip all the little ones. Go on then. Off to bed. Off you pop."

And Lana did go back to bed, the nightmare from earlier still present in the back of her mind. But she felt calmer now after talking to the Doctor and found that she was now able to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read so far. With Christmas less than a week away, I think it bears mentioning at this point that Lana and Annie are meant to be alternative companions to Clara. While I fully expect the actual new companion to be amazing, I really wanted to write this story, and the unfortunate departure of the Ponds gave me a nice clean break for me to put forth these characters. It is to be assumed that anything occurring from the Christmas special onward does not apply to this story unless explicitly stated otherwise. I do have long term plans for Lana and Annie and already know (more or less) what will be occurring for their next several adventures. **

**I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, and like all of you, I am waiting in deep anticipation for more Doctor Who! Merry Christmas! **


	8. Evil in the Morning

"Rise and shine!" said the Doctor jovially as he burst into Annie's room. She made a disgruntled groaning noise in the back of her throat and threw a pillow in his general direction. He easily dodged out of the way and said, "Come on, come on! Wake up! No time to waste!" She groaned again, but began coaxing her muscles in the general direction of getting out of bed.

"Wakey, wakey!" he said cheerfully, bursting into Lana's room next. Lana made groaning sounds of disapproval, and put a pillow over her face to block out the sudden light from the hallway. "Oh, don't give me that! If you wanted to sleep you shouldn't have spent all night wandering about the TARDIS! Time to get up!"

When he was satisfied that Lana was starting to at least move he pranced to the console room and started entering coordinates and fiddling with levers. A few minutes later, Lana and Annie shuffled in still clad in their sleeping attire. Lana was wrapped in her navy blue bathrobe and Annie was wearing a cami tank and Angry Bird pajama pants and both sporting a serious case of bed head. "Coffee," croaked Annie.

"No time for that," said the Doctor dismissively as he ran around the console flipping levers and pressing buttons. "I'm going to take you somewhere amazing!" He flipped a final lever sending the TARDIS into motion as the time rotor at the center pumped up and down. Lana and Annie instinctually held onto the railing to keep from falling over.

"Can amazing wait for us to get dressed?" mumbled Lana with a yawn.

"And coffee," added Annie, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"No, no, no, we're going to go have a look now," said the Doctor as he ran over to throw an arm around each of them and nudge them forward toward the door. "No time to waste."

"Seriously, coffee," groaned Annie. "I can't do amazing without coffee."

"It's a time machine," said Lana. "Don't we have nothing but time to waste?"

"Not when I'm bored," said the Doctor matter-of-factly. "Seriously, you people and your silly human biology. You sleep for hours on end every night! It's a wonder your species ever gets anything done. But I've been exquisitely and beautifully patient with your allotted sleep cycles and now I'm bored so you're going to let me impress you. Never let amazing wait when you're bored, rule #64."

"That rule should not apply first thing in the morning," muttered Lana.

"Did I mention I need coffee?" begged Annie. "I fuel amazing with coffee. I can't do anything that even remotely resembles amazing without coffee."

The Doctor ignored their protests and pulled open the TARDIS doors to reveal a vast hilly landscape covered in mossy green grass. They were beside a dirt path that appeared to exist only by repeated use rather than having been actively created. The path led down into a shallow valley where a small village was situated. The sky was slightly overcast, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the scene.

"Where are we?" asked Lana.

"Same place I found you," said the Doctor excitedly, "but in the 15th century. You want to see Scotland, your time's fine but it's muddled down by bloody tourists. This is when you want to come for the true Scottish experience." He spun around on his heal and said, "So what do you think?"

"I'd be more impressed if I had coffee," Annie grumbled.

The Doctor's face fell at that and he huffed, "Cigarettes, coffee, punching people in the face…what is it with you and your bad habits?"

Annie narrowed her eyes into a glare. "That's the wrong question to ask me before I've had my coffee."

"Um, Doctor," Lana interjected. "Aren't people going to wonder about our clothes?"

"Yes," said the Doctor. "But they're going to wonder about us anyway so there's no point in wasting time. Come along, let's go look around." He started walking purposefully toward the village without stopping to see if Lana and Annie would follow, which gave them little choice but to do so.

"Everything looks so quaint," Lana commented as they reached the edge of the village.

"Well quaint to you," pointed out the Doctor. "To them, it's brand new."

"Did you really have to drag us out first thing in the morning to a time before coffee shops?" said Annie.

Before anyone could respond to her, they were distracted by a woman's cries. "William! Please listen to me, William! You know me, look at me. Think of the wee bairns!" The man named William came into view from around the corner of a building, walking steadily toward the edge of town, the woman pulling at his plaid as she begged him to stop. The man's face was blank and he seemed not to notice the woman at all.

Another woman ran out of a building and pulled the first one off of the man. "Agnes, it's too late," she said. The first woman stood on the spot and sobbed uncontrollably as the man walked away oblivious to the two women and to the crowd of onlookers that was beginning to gather.

The man walked away into the heather with his kilt swishing with his gait. When the man had disappeared over a hill a murmur spread through the crowd as a priest emerged into a clearing and addressed the village. "My children," he began, his voice carried through the air, "the loss of William is unfortunate. We did everything we could to save him from the evil plaguing his soul, but the demon was too strong. We must pray for him."

"How many more, Father Mungo?" someone called out from the crowd. There was a murmur of agreement among the group.

The priest was calm as he responded. "Evil works in tricky ways, my child. We must remain vigilant and maintain our faith in the Lord to deliver us." He then departed and the crowd dissipated, leaving the woman still sobbing as she looked off into the moor in the direction the man had left.

The Doctor approached the crying woman with Lana and Annie following behind. "Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me what just happened here?"

"My…my husband," she cried.

The other woman looked at the strangers with open suspicion written plainly across her face. "I'm sorry, but who are you then?"

"Right, sorry," said the Doctor. "I'm the Doctor. This is Lana and Annie."

"Such strange dress," said the woman, looking them up and down. "Which one is your wife?"

"Neither," said Lana and Annie firmly in unison.

"Right, yes," said the Doctor, "we're from abroad. Customs are a bit different where we're from. Just passing through and I hear that a demon's responsible for this? I love me a good demon. We happen to be a demon fighting team and thought we might be able to help."

"Well you certainly seem strange," said the crying woman. "But I'll take any help I can get. I'm Agnes and this is my good-sister Fiona."

"I don't suppose we could continue this conversation inside somewhere?" asked Annie. "It's a bit cold out here. Preferably over coffee?"

The air did have a chill to it and there were visible goose bumps prickling up the sides of Annie's exposed arms. Lana had subconsciously started pulling her bathrobe tighter around her against the brisk highland breeze.

"Of course!" said Agnes, wiping away her tears. "Where are my manners? Come with me to my home before you catch your death!"

The Doctor, Lana, and Annie followed behind Agnes and Fiona through the village. "Why are you suddenly volunteering us for demon hunting?" asked Lana under her breath.

"Because," said the Doctor, "you should always offer your expertise when it will help, rule #702. You know, you should really be writing these down."

"I'm not your secretary," muttered Lana. "And even if I was, you rushed us out of the TARDIS so quickly I don't have my bag with me."

"Wait, sorry," said Annie. "A bit slow without the coffee…you think it's really a demon possessing that man?"

"No, of course not," said the Doctor dismissively. "There's no such thing as demons."

"So you just lied to those poor people?" asked Lana, appalled. "Gave them hope when you don't even know what's wrong?"

"Rule #1," said the Doctor. "The Doctor lies. But I didn't give them false hope. I do mean to find out what's wrong and fix it. There is something evil going on here and I'm going to find out what."

"The morning is the only evil I should be fighting in the morning, rule #7," said Lana, dryly with her arms crossed stubbornly across her chest.

"No," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "Rule #7 is never run when you are scared. That's not one of my rules."

"No, it's one of mine," said Lana. "And your rules are rubbish by the way."

"Yes, and my first rule is I need coffee," said Annie. "It doesn't sound as witty as your rules, but I can't do any better than that when I haven't had my coffee."

"OK, fine you win," said the Doctor exasperated. "When we get done here I promise not to drag you out first thing in the morning again. But I do need your help now. Now please, please quit your incessant whining."

"We are so getting you back for this," said Annie with a scowl.

"Agreed," said Lana. "Let's go fight demons, I guess."


	9. Exorcism

**A/N: Thank you so much to the first person to add me to favorite and follow, you know who you are. It really means a lot to me. **

* * *

Instead of immediately fighting demons, they found themselves huddled around a wooden table in Agnes' one room cottage. Annie was sipping hot liquid from a tin mug. It wasn't coffee, but it was better than nothing. Lana ran one hand through her long hair and drummed out a rhythm on the table with the other. The Doctor was happily slathering jam on some biscuits that were offered. Two small children, a boy and a girl were playing in one corner.

"So," said the Doctor between mouthfuls of jam and biscuit, "when did all this start?"

"About a fortnight ago," said Agnes. "Some of the men started acting a wee bit more agitated than usual."

"If you ask me," Fiona interjected, "they weren't acting no different."

"Well none of us thought anything of it at first," Agnes continued on, looking warily at Fiona, "but luckily for us Father Mungo arrived. We been without a proper priest since Father Jerome died of an auge two months back. He recognized the early signs."

"Early signs of what?" asked the Doctor.

"A demon, innit?" said Agnes, frightened. "It steals their Highland spirit."

"Is that why they're wandering off into the moor?" asked Annie curiously, coming more into herself with each sip of the warm drink.

"Father Mungo has tried tirelessly to vanquish this demon through the power of our Lord," said Agnes, "but it hasn't worked. We've lost about a dozen men despite the prayers and rituals in the church."

"All of them were seen by Father Mungo before heading for the hills, so to speak?" asked Lana.

"Yes," said Agnes. "The man is a saint for trying to save us."

"Well if you ask me," interjected Fiona in a bitter tone, "the man isna a proper priest if he canna help. This demon will surely consume us all. And I dinna think you lot will be able to help either."

"Well I should be able to help," said the Doctor. "But first I need to go have a word with Father Mungo. Consult with his methods on what's already been done. Best to team up against demons. I'll just pop up to the church for a quick chat and Lana and Annie can keep you company."

The Doctor stood up to leave, but Lana jumped up and stopped him at the door. "You're lying," she accused under her breath. "You think Father Mungo's behind this."

"Of course I'm lying," said the Doctor. "I don't need them asking too many questions until I find out more about what's going on."

"Well, we can come with you," said Lana insistently.

"No, it could be dangerous," said the Doctor. "Stay here until I know what we're dealing with. Don't wander off."

Lana didn't have any good reason to want to come along other than just feeling helpless being left with Agnes and Fiona. But she hadn't woken up enough to argue the point. Reluctantly, she watched the Doctor go, and sat back down at the table and helped herself to a biscuit.

"So are the two of you widowed then?" asked Agnes.

"No," Annie scoffed. "Why would you think that?"

"Well then, where are your husbands?" asked Fiona persistently. "If neither of you are married to the Doctor?"

"We're not married," said Lana, gently, sensing she may have to diffuse an outburst from Annie.

"I was supposed to have a husband," said Annie bitterly. "But I don't need him."

"How can you not need a husband?" asked Agnes, incredulous.

Annie shrugged. "You just don't where we come from. You can have one or not if you want."

Now it was Lana's turn to scoff. "You wouldn't know that to hear Ma or Aunt Joan talk."

"Where do you come from?" asked Fiona suspiciously. "Who are you? You and that Doctor."

Before they could think of a suitable answer, they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Agnes answered it to reveal Father Mungo. "I've come to see if I can offer prayer and assistance with the loss of William," he directed to Agnes.

"Of course, Father," said Agnes humbly, holding the door open to allow him in. "Please sit down and have some breakfast. Might I introduce our guests just arrived, Lana and Annie."

The priest nodded cordially in the direction of the table, and then his eyes fell upon Annie. "My dear child, why are you in a state of undress?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" snapped Annie. "I've got clothes on."

Lana cut in, trying to diffuse the situation. "We left quite early this morning, and were prevented from obtaining more appropriate attire. My apologies."

"Well I don't apologize," said Annie. "Don't apologize for the Doctor being an inconsiderate piece of work. And I like my pajamas; it's just too cold for them."

"Such a brazen, wanton woman," said Father Mungo. "I'm gravely sorry, but I believe you are showing the early signs of demon possession."

"Father," said Lana, still trying to be diplomatic and mindful of the time they were in, "my sister is not possessed by a demon. I realize her behavior must seem unusual to you, but this is normal for her. Especially when she hasn't had her coffee."

"You must come with me to the church for an exorcism ritual," said the priest. "We must use the power of prayer to compel the demon from her before it's too late."

"I'll use the power of my fist to compel your face if you don't shut it," said Annie menacingly.

"Perhaps its best you go with him," said Agnes hesitantly.

"You should demand she go," insisted Fiona. "You don't want that around the bairns."

"The hell if I'm going with this creep," said Annie stubbornly.

But Lana was starting to see the making of a losing battle. She weighed the options in her mind then leaned in to her sister so the others couldn't hear. "Maybe we should go. The Doctor said he was going to the church, so we can meet up with him there. And we might find out something on the way. If things get weird, you can just punch him."

Annie let out a loud sigh and glared at Father Mungo. "OK fine, we'll go. But shut your face about how I'm dressed."

* * *

They arrived at the church which looked ancient and brand new at the same time. In a way it was. They arrived to a small antechamber with an altar inside. Father Mungo turned to Lana and said, "We must be alone for the ritual. You may wait and pray in the sanctuary."

"Shouldn't I be there?" asked Lana nervously. "Wouldn't my support help?" She knew there was no demon, but didn't feel comfortable leaving Annie alone with the priest either.

"I'm afraid I must insist," said Father Mungo.

"I'll be fine," Annie reassured her. She leaned in to whisper, "I'll just punch him if things get weird remember?"

Lana saw little choice but to allow Father Mungo to shut her out of the small room.

* * *

Lana walked toward the sanctuary intending to look around to see if she could find out anything or find the Doctor. She was looking around the altar when she heard footsteps approaching. She instinctively dived behind the pipe organ knowing that she would certainly look suspicious engaging in her current activities. She tried to keep her breathing steady as she hid, listening to the movement in the chapel, and trying to determine if it was safe to poke her head up and have a look. She could hear the footsteps getting closer and was getting nervous that she would be discovered. Then she heard the unmistakable pitch of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and breathed a sigh of relief. She stood up quickly to reveal herself just as the Doctor rounded the corner to her hiding spot, running smack into her.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "I told you not to wander off. That's the first rule, don't wander off."

"I thought you said that Rule #1 was the Doctor lies," she said indignantly. "Or did you lie about that?"

"The numbers of the rules aren't really important," said the Doctor dismissively. "What's important is that you follow them."

"So everyone you've ever traveled with has always followed your rubbish rules to a tee without question?" asked Lana with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no," the Doctor sputtered. "Actually they all seem to have a bad habit of wandering off. One of these days, I'll find someone who actually listens to that. It's important, and I do know what I'm talking about."

"It seems to me," said Lana, "that the types of people to stay put aren't especially likely to run off with a mad alien man in a time machine. Did you ever think of that?"

"Hmm…that's an interesting point," said the Doctor. "Speaking of wandering off, where is your sister?"

"Oh, she's off getting a fake exorcism," said Lana, dismissively.

"What?" exclaimed the Doctor, slightly panicked.

"She's with Father Mungo," said Lana calmly.

"And you just left her there?" scolded the Doctor. "We don't know what's going on here. She could get hurt."

"You should probably worry more about Father Mungo getting hurt than her," said Lana. "Especially since she hasn't had her coffee. Come with me, I know where she is."

They were about to go to her, but found they didn't have to when Annie and Father Mungo entered the sanctuary. Annie looked at them with a cordial smile on her face. "Good day to you, my dear sister and Doctor." She made a gesture that looked like a curtsey and entirely out of place in her Angry Bird pajama pants.

"Annie?" Lana looked at her sister confused. Annie and Father Mungo walked past them and up to the main altar where Annie kneeled before it and bowed her head.

Father Mungo stood before her and made the sign of the cross in the air. "My child, your wanton and sinful ways must end. I beg this demon leave you. You must pray now for your soul."

"Yes, Father," said Annie demurely.

The priest left Annie kneeling in prayer and moved to leave, but Lana blocked his path. "What have you done to my sister?" she demanded.

"I have done my best to vanquish the demon plaguing her soul," he said gravely. "It is in God's hands now."

"No," said Lana through gritted teeth. "There is no demon. And there is no way she is just playing along right now. She should be livid with you. Why hasn't she punched you in the face?"

"Surely, she must realize what a grave sin it would be to lay hands upon a man of God," said Father Mungo sincerely.

"What is your plan here?" asked the Doctor. "What are you hoping to accomplish?"

"Only to conquer this evil plague with the power of our Lord," said the priest. "Perhaps the two of you would do well to contemplate that." He pulled a vial from the inside of his robe and uncorked it, waving a pungent chemical beneath their noses.

"Oh, bugger," said the Doctor as they both passed out on the floor of the sanctuary.


	10. Highland Charge

Minutes or hours might have passed before Lana and the Doctor regained consciousness. Father Mungo was gone and Annie was still kneeling at the altar in prayer.

"Annie!" Lana rushed over to her sister.

Annie looked up at her with a strange look on her face. "I need to pray for forgiveness to be delivered from this demon."

"Annie, look at me," said the Doctor. "There is no demon, remember?"

"You should pray for me too, Doctor," she said.

"OK, let's think about this," said the Doctor as he began to pace around the sanctuary.

"She should be so angry about all this," said Lana helplessly. "It's like it's not even her."

"Well, why don't we try to make her angry?" said the Doctor. "Oi! Motormouth!" Annie looked at him serenely. "That's right; I'm talking to you, you with your goofy trousers!"

Lana gave the Doctor a questioning look. "That's what you're going for to make her angry? You insult her pajamas?"

"Well she's your sister," said the Doctor. "I'm sure you probably know how to get her feathers ruffled."

Lana hesitated. She usually spent a good chunk of time trying to keep her sister from getting angry, acting as the voice of reason and control, in an attempt to filter Annie's rage to something palatable to the public. But she realized it might break through to her to tap into that anger. So as much as she hated to do it, she took a deep breath and attempted to rub salt in what she knew would still be an incredibly raw wound. "You know I'm sure Max is probably glad you didn't go through with it. Being chained down to you nagging him all the time. And that caterer is much prettier than you. Just shows he's better off."

Annie looked over to Lana with a blank expression on her face. "Max? Who is this Max? I must devote to the Lord."

"Max…you were going to marry him…just last week you were going to marry him," said Lana her voice becoming more and more concerned.

Annie didn't respond, her expression somehow becoming even blanker. "That's strange," said the Doctor. "It's as if it's sapping away emotional memories."

"Annie," said Lana slowly, suddenly terrified at the thought she had. "Do you remember Adam?"

"Who is Adam?" asked Annie, her voice becoming more serenely distant each time she spoke.

Lana grabbed her sister's shoulders and shook them slightly. "Adam!" she said. "You should be furious thinking about Adam!"

The Doctor pulled Lana away. "Who is Adam?" he asked her under his breath.

"Someone she should remember," said Lana in disbelief as she looked at her sister.

Annie then stood up and began walking out of the church. "Annie!" Lana called after her, but she ignored her and kept walking. Lana and the Doctor rushed to follow her, all the while Lana begging her sister for her attention. Soon, a crowd had gathered in the village once more, a repeat of the scene with William when they arrived. This time, it was Agnes to hold Lana back as Annie walked wordlessly out into the moor.

Lana looked after her sister helplessly, not sure what to do next. "Lana," said the Doctor, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get her back, I promise."

Lana pushed his hand away and turned on him, fixing him with an intense glare. "Really? You promise?" Her tone held edges of sarcasm and disbelief and a hint of anger, but she didn't raise her voice.

"Of course I promise," said the Doctor, attempting to reassure her. "Trust me."

"I don't trust doctors, I've told you that," said Lana evenly. "Are you sure you promise?"

"Yes," he said simply.

Lana took a deep breath, weighing her words carefully. "Listen…if we try everything we can to get her back and we don't, but you haven't promised, I'll be very upset. In fact, I don't know what I would do. But one thing I know I wouldn't do is blame you. But if we don't get her back, and you have promised, then oh, yes I will. And I'll tell you why, too. Because I don't need to be lied to…not now, not ever…even if you think it's going to make me feel better." She paused and took another breath before adding, "So I'll give you the one time only opportunity to take that back if you like. Do you still promise?"

The Doctor had a serious look on his face, taking in everything she had just said. But he didn't hesitate with his response, "I promise."

Lana gave a resigned sigh. She still didn't believe him. "I hope you're right," she said simply.

The Doctor starting walking back toward the church and Lana followed. "Do you have a plan?" she asked.

"Of course I have a plan," said the Doctor confidently. "The plan is to get Annie back."

"That's not a plan, that's an objective," Lana snapped. "I was hoping for something with some steps involved."

"Alright then," said the Doctor. "We're going to go back to the church and find out how Father Mungo is controlling them and why."

"OK," said Lana calming slightly. "That sounds slightly more like a plan. Then what?"

"Then I'll do a thing," said the Doctor.

"OK that _was_ sounding like a plan," said Lana, exasperation returning to her voice. "What sort of a thing?"

"I don't know," said the Doctor irritably. "It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing."

Lana rolled her eyes in frustration. "A thing in progress? You know next time I hitch a ride with a time traveling alien, I'm going to find one who knows what he's doing. How about that?"

"Well good luck finding one," said the Doctor matching her sarcasm. "We're in short supply and high demand. Now do you know where Annie was for her fake exorcism?"

"Yes, this way," said Lana as they reached the church. She led him to the antechamber to find the door closed and locked. The Doctor quickly used the sonic screwdriver to open the door, and then began scanning around inside.

It only took a moment for him to hone in on the altar. "What's this then? Looks like a regular old churchy altar, but my readings say otherwise." In one swift motion, he pulled the cloth off to reveal a machine underneath. "Not an altar, a mind control machine."

Lana looked uncomfortably at the machine in front of her. She had seen it before, in her nightmare the previous night, the nightmare from her childhood. "That machine controls minds?" asked Lana apprehensively.

"Among other things, yes," said the Doctor. "Lucky for us, and for Annie, and for anyone else who's gone wandering off into the moor, it should be simple enough for me to reverse the feed."

"You won't be able to reverse anything, I'm afraid," came a voice from the doorway. Father Mungo stood there, blocking the way. "The controls are isomorphic, they respond only to me."

The Doctor approached the other man and stood so their faces were inches apart. "Who are you? What are you up to?"

"Your threats mean nothing to me, time lord," said the priest, menacingly. "Oh, yes, I know what you are, and you can't stop me."

"Stop you from what, exactly?" asked the Doctor, not backing down.

"I was exiled here by my people," said Father Mungo. "But I can control an army and exact my revenge."

"So you're building an army with these people?" said the Doctor. "That's not going to help you much at this stage in human history. Might have a good go at taking over the Earth, but they don't have the technology to go anywhere else. You'd be stuck here, no revenge. So what's the point?"

"Oh, this machine does more than just control them," said Father Mungo smugly. "I can use it to create a portal, and I will have my revenge. And when I'm done with that, then I'll have an army. Only one final test is needed, and it is about to begin. You're too late I'm afraid." The priest smashed a vial onto the floor, causing the room to fill with noxious smoke, and he quickly left, locking the Doctor and Lana in.

The two of them sputtered and coughed as the Doctor rushed to the door and attempted to open it with the sonic screwdriver. "He's added a deadlock seal," he yelled. "I can't open it."

"So what now?" yelled Lana, her words muffled by coughs as she tried to cover her mouth and nose to block out the poisonous fumes.

"We need to find another way out!" he shouted.

Panicked, they looked around and Lana noticed a window high up on the wall behind the machine. Lana climbed on top of the machine and tried to push open the wooden shutters. "Give me your screwdriver, it won't open!"

"No good, doesn't work on wood," said the Doctor who was taking off his jacket to cover his face, and climbing up to help push open the shutters.

With the two of them working together, they were able to open the shutters as the thick gas rose higher and higher in the room. The Doctor boosted Lana up and out first and then pulled himself up behind her. The two of them tumbled the few short feet down to the grass and took deep heaving breaths of the fresh air as the thick smoke billowed out of the window and dissipated into the air above them.

"Remind me not to take breathing for granted anymore," said Lana when she had recovered enough to speak.

"Well, yes, it is one of those activities that one tends not to think too much about until you can't do it," agreed the Doctor.

"Is it just me," said Lana, "or was that a bit counter-productive on his part? Doesn't seem like it would help him to fumigate the room his mind control device is in."

"It would be counter-productive," said the Doctor. "But those are only the secondary controls. We need to find the primary machine."

"How did you know that's the secondary controls?" asked Lana.

"Because he didn't hesitate to fumigate us in there," said the Doctor as if it were obvious. "Try to keep up. We need to find the primary controls. If he opens a portal like he's planning, he could tear a hole in reality that could swallow the entire planet."

"OK, well I'm not too worried about the hole in reality thing, but I do want the mind control over my sister thing to stop," said Lana dryly.

"How can you not be worried about the hole in reality thing?" said the Doctor flabbergasted. "Holes in reality bad. Big and bad. Could swallow your entire planet, did I mention?"

"Well I might be worried," said Lana, sarcasm creeping into her tone, "if I weren't from the future. The planet isn't swallowed, at least not now. 600 years from now, the planet's still here; I've seen it. I suppose it could be swallowed anytime after that, but right now not so concerned."

"The planet could be swallowed," argued the Doctor. "Time can be rewritten. It's all wibbly wobbly, and if you pull at it wrong, the whole thing comes apart and 600 years from now there'll be no Earth and you won't have been born."

"OK," said Lana thinking quick, "time can be rewritten. In that case, let's go get the TARDIS and go back and stop this from starting."

"No," said the Doctor. "We can't do that. You can't go back on your own personal timeline. We are a part of events now. We have to stop this in the here and now."

"So what you're saying," said Lana becoming increasingly frustrated, "is that time can be rewritten, but only if it's a massive inconvenience to us."

"You make it sound as if time is singling you out to make things difficult for you," said the Doctor. "It's not like that. Nothing like that. But if it'll make you listen, then sure, why not? Time can only be rewritten if it's a massive inconvenience to us."

"Well we still have a little time," said Lana hopefully. "He said something about a final test. That means he probably won't be ripping open reality until that happens. What do you think the final test is?"

"I think it's starting," said the Doctor slowly, looking over Lana's shoulder. Lana turned around to see a dozen or so highland men in kilts standing at the top of the hill with shields and broadswords at the ready. Annie stood at the end of the line in her Angry Bird pajama pants with her own shield and broadsword. She looked the most fierce and deadly that Lana had ever seen her.

"Where did she get a sword?" said Lana looking up at the scene in awe.

"This must be the final test," said the Doctor. "He wants to make sure he can really control them. He's going to make them attack their friends and families." In confirmation of the Doctor's words, the line charged down the hill screaming Gaelic battle cries and swinging their swords, ready for combat.

"Go get people inside," the Doctor instructed Lana. "Get them away to safety, as many people as you can." He quickly started running back around the side of the church.

"Where are you going?" she shouted after him.

"To find the primary controls!" he yelled. "Geronimo!"

Lana obeyed and ran back into the heart of the village, to try to usher people to safety. The men were advancing with their swords swinging, and Lana tried her best not to show her fear and she urged people into their homes and told them to barricade the doors. Lana tried not to think about the people who didn't make it inside in time. She knew behind her, innocent people had been grabbed by the warriors, shoved against buildings and held at sword point. Her heart fell when she saw that Agnes was grabbed by her husband William.

Lana was about to go find shelter herself, thinking she had helped everyone she could when she was roughly grabbed and shoved against a wall herself. She looked up to see that her assailant was Annie. Her sister held her against the side of the building with strength she didn't know she possessed, the massive sword held at her neck. Lana looked directly into her sister's eyes, and couldn't see Annie there.

"Annie," she begged with a slight whimper, "it's me."

The village had gone quiet. Each man held a victim at sword point, but no one had been cut down. Father Mungo calmly walked into the street. "Now!" he cried out, his voice carrying through the air. Lana closed her eyes and winced, expecting to die. But nothing happened. No one made a move. "I said now!" yelled the priest.

Suddenly, everyone dropped their swords. Lana looked nervously back to her sister to see recognition returning to Annie's eyes. "Annie?" Lana asked hesitantly.

Annie looked at Lana, then to the sword and shield in her hand. "Where did I get a sword?" she asked befuddled.

Lana let out a shaky laugh. "No idea."

"I am so keeping this," she said.

Lana's tentative chuckle moved to full on laughter out of sheer relief. "Yeah, you should do that." She pulled Annie into a big hug.

William was the first to advance on Father Mungo. "You did this!" he yelled. "You are no man of God!" The rest of the men soon had the priest restrained.

The Doctor appeared behind Lana and Annie. "Best we get going, I think," he said quietly.

They were leaving town and walking back up the hill to the TARDIS, when they heard a woman's voice behind them. "Wait!" They all turned to see Agnes running up to them. "I needed to thank you, whoever you are. You are sent from heaven, you are."

"Ah, there's no need for that," said the Doctor. "Go and spend time with your family."

"But who are you? Really?" said Agnes.

"Just travelers passing through," said the Doctor.

"I'll never forget you," said Agnes. "Angels delivered us from demons today."

"Best be off," said the Doctor. "Don't you worry about us." The three of them stepped into the TARDIS and Agnes watched as it dematerialized before her eyes.

* * *

"Gerroff me, you bow tie wearing buffoon!" Annie growled at the Doctor who was attempting to scan her with his sonic screwdriver.

"And she's back," said Lana with a smirk.

"Oh just sit still," scolded the Doctor. "I just need to make sure there isn't any after effects of the mind control."

"I'm fine, no thanks to you," snapped Annie. "This is your fault, you know, dragging me out without my coffee."

"Did you have to keep the broadsword?" he said, looking at some readings on the monitor.

"What's wrong with the broadsword?" asked Annie, picking it up and admiring it. "I wanted a souvenir from Scotland."

"How did you stop it anyway, Doctor?" asked Lana.

"Well it turns out that Father Mungo was telling a bit of a fib about the isomorphic controls, so once I found the primary machine it was just a simple matter of destabilizing the neural wave transducers," said the Doctor rambling on. "After that everybody back to normal, not going to sword down family and loved ones. And then I did a very clever thing where I folded the temporal signal back onto itself to stop any portals from opening by accident and rendering it useless to any other megalomaniac who stumbles upon it. Very important, since that was not Father Mungo's machine; he scavenged it."

Lana blinked a few times at his long explanation. "You know I probably would've been ok if you just said 'disabled it.'"

"If you were so clever about all that, then why the hell did you want to sneak off so quickly?" said Annie, still grumpy.

"Because it's best if I don't draw too much attention to myself," said the Doctor.

"So you appear out of nowhere in 15th century Scotland in a blue box dressed like that," Lana gestured up and down at the Doctor's outfit, "dragging us along in our pajamas, and then just as mysteriously disappear again right as their problem is solved, and that's your method of not drawing attention to yourself?"

"I didn't say I was successful," said the Doctor grumpily, "but I should at least make an attempt. I don't need the trouble following me."

"Well you still haven't answered the most important question, Doctor," said Annie. "Is there coffee?"

"OK, yes fine," said the Doctor exasperated. "Kitchen that way, off you pop. Lana, let me give you a check over. I want to make sure you didn't breath in too much of that gas."

Lana allowed the Doctor to scan over her while Annie left to get coffee. Once her sister was out of earshot, she asked the question that had really been bothering her. "Doctor, you said that machine could control minds, among other things. What else could that machine do?"

"Well," said the Doctor. "It could manipulate DNA, but I don't think Father Mungo had figured out how to do that. Why do you ask?"

"I was curious," said Lana as simply as she could, trying not to be bothered by her dream.

"Well, you seem to be fine, no after effects of the gas," said the Doctor cheerfully. "Go on and change then. I'll set us to drift through deep space for a bit. And I'm a time lord of my word; no more adventures in the morning."

Lana left to change eager to relax for at least a few hours before hurtling on to whatever was next. As soon as the Doctor was alone in the console area, he let his cheerful mask fall as he looked over Lana and Annie's scan results on his monitor. "Where did you impossible girls come from?" he said to himself in a quiet worried tone.


	11. One Sexy Machine

Annie found herself lying in a field of red grass beneath a bright orange sky. She stood up and looked around, confused, not remembering how she'd gotten there. She turned to see a woman in ornate red ceremonial robes approaching her. The woman appeared to be middle aged with brown hair in a short boyish haircut. "Who the hell are you?" Annie demanded.

"Who I am is not important," said the woman, calmly.

"Where the hell am I? Where's my sister? Where's the Doctor?"

"They are safe," said the woman. "You are with the Doctor for a reason."

"OK, you know so much, then drop the cryptic crap and talk to me straight," Annie demanded.

"Time can be rewritten. Adam was never supposed to die."

"How do you know about Adam?" Annie asked angrily. "Who the hell are you?"

"You are with the Doctor for a reason," said the woman as she turned to walk away.

"Wait! Wait, come back here," Annie called after her, but the woman ignored Annie's protests. "Wait…"

* * *

Annie woke with a start, disturbed by the vivid dream. She looked around the room a few times to reassure herself that she was still aboard the TARDIS and not on some strange planet of the mysterious oracles. She was mildly surprised at herself at how quickly the TARDIS had become her benchmark for normality.

She tried to go back to sleep and found she couldn't. It wasn't just the dream. She was still bothered that she had been subject to mind control. She didn't remember anything that happened from the time that she entered Father Mungo's antechamber until she suddenly found herself standing over Lana with a broadsword. The idea that she could've hurt her sister with no control or memory of it had shaken her much more than she was willing to admit to anyone. Lana was her anchor; Annie didn't want to think about an existence without her in it.

She decided to take a walk and stretch her legs. She wandered into the console area and down the stairs beneath the glass floor. She sat in the swing and started running her fingers over the various wires, cables, and couplings, running through her mind what she thought each one might do. She started singing softly to herself while she explored, "Topeka" by Ludo. "I found God in a catalytic converter in Topeka on a Monday night…"

"What do you think you're doing?" asked the Doctor as he came down and found her.

He startled her so much that she yelped and fell backwards out of the swing, landing with a thud on the floor. "Son of a monkey's seabiscuit! Isn't it past your bedtime?" she demanded.

"I could say the same about you," the Doctor countered.

"I wasn't doing anything," said Annie defensively. "I was just looking. I mean…I like working with machines, gadgets…I was trying to see how it works."

"Well let me show you," said the Doctor excitedly. He came up behind her on the swing and guided her arms to one on the thick cables. "This connects the temporal navigator to the dimension compression field which is powered by this receptacle of arton energy…"

Annie paid close attention, fascinated by the various functions. After several minutes of long, complicated, rambling explanations, the Doctor stopped and asked, "Well what do you think?"

"I think she is one sexy machine," said Annie sincerely and in awe.

"Yes she is," said the Doctor with a child-like grin as he lovingly patted a beam. "Do me a favor, though, and don't mess with her if I'm not around."

"Why not?" Annie huffed. She very much wanted to have a look when the Doctor wasn't standing over her.

"Because she's very delicate," said the Doctor firmly. "And because she's my ship and I say so."

"Fine," said Annie with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, knowing even as she said it that she would probably ignore him the first chance she got.

"Why don't you tell me about your sister then?" said the Doctor casually.

"Why do you ask?" said Annie, immediately suspicious.

"Oh, just curious, get to know you sort of thing," said the Doctor.

"She's a Libra and enjoys long walks through well-stocked libraries," said Annie sarcastically.

"Oh, well thanks," said the Doctor, matching her sarcasm. "Try to have a nice conversation with you…"

Annie paused for a moment, and then said quietly and seriously, "Don't piss her off."

"I rather thought that was you," said the Doctor, surprised.

Annie rolled her eyes at that. "Well don't do that either. It's just with Lana…well, have you ever seen a fireworks show?"

"Of course I've see a fireworks show," said the Doctor indignantly. "I helped invent fireworks in 10th century China."

"Well we're like fireworks," Annie explained. "But I'm more like a bottle rocket. One short fuse, for one small firework. I might snap and punch someone in the face, but then I'm done. Lana's more like the grand finale. She has a long burning fuse that can be stopped well before anything goes off, but once she does there is no stopping her until she's done."

"I'll keep that in mind," said the Doctor. "But you should get to bed though…new adventures tomorrow and all that. I promise not to drag you out before your coffee again, but I don't want to wait all day for you either. Go on then, off you pop."

Annie went to bed and found that her conversation with the Doctor had been enough of a distraction to take her mind off the events of the day and she was now able to sleep.


	12. Going Home

Over the next week or so, the Doctor did in fact keep his word not to drag them out in the morning again. They also managed not to run into any significant danger in that time. The Doctor took them to a museum in the future and ran around the entire time like a maniac pointing out errors and events he'd had a personal hand in. Lana was fascinated. Annie was bored to tears.

He took them to an alien marketplace that specialized in futuristic gadgets, or as the Doctor explained, actually contemporary for the time zone they landed in. Annie was fascinated. Lana was bored to tears.

He took them to an alien spa where they were given foot baths by a slug-like creature that apparently specialized in the art. Lana and Annie both agreed that, while admittedly a bit weird, it was the most relaxed they had ever felt.

The day after the spa trip, Lana and Annie came into the console room to see what was on the agenda for the day. "I thought I'd take you for a quick look at prehistoric Earth. We can't stay long…the local wildlife tends to get a bit cross. But always worth a peek."

"What in the hell is that thing on your head?" asked Annie.

"What this?" he asked with a dismissive motion at his hat as he flipped levers and entered coordinates. "It's a fez. Sometimes I wear a fez. Fezzes are cool."

"Cool?" said Lana skeptically. "I think you and I have different definitions of that word."

When the TARDIS landed, the three of them exited to look across the prehistoric landscape. They could see a couple of brontosauruses feeding off in the distance. "Wow," Lana and Annie breathed in unison.

"Yes, it really is something, isn't it?" said the Doctor as he clapped a hand on each of their shoulders and bounced on his heels. "Early days of your planet. In a few thousand years, an asteroid will mean the end of these creatures, paving the way for mammals, and eventually…humanity. But right here, right now this planet is theirs."

"And you can see it whenever you want," said Lana wistfully. "I bet you know everything there is to know about them."

"And you don't just know, you experience it," added Annie transfixed.

"Everywhere we've been and everywhere we're going," said Lana.

"It's just amazing," said Annie.

"Yes, well…" the Doctor started to speak, but was cut off when suddenly a pterodactyl swooped down and grabbed the fez off his head, and flew off again.

The pterodactyl was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Lana and Annie had dissolved into peals of laughter. "It looks like no one likes that stupid hat," Annie giggled.

"Except maybe you of course," added Lana through the laughs.

"Well I can buy a new fez," said the Doctor. He turned back toward the TARDIS. "Are you coming?" he said impatiently. "I told you we can't stay long."

"Yeah, we'll be in. Just give us a minute," said Lana.

"Well be quick about it," said the Doctor as he disappeared inside.

"Lay off it, you bow tie wearing buffoon!" Annie called after him, without looking away from the scene.

Lana and Annie now stood alone gazing across their planet's past.

"I don't want to go home," said Lana as she looked upon the scene.

"Me neither," answered Annie wistfully as she too was mesmerized by the landscape before her.

"You know what that means don't you?" said Lana with a sidelong glance at her sister.

"We have to go home," grumbled Annie with a deep, weary sigh.

Lana let out her own resigned sigh to match. "Yep," she said. "Let's go tell him." The two of them turned back to the TARDIS, leaving the magnificent scene behind them.

"Doctor, we want to keep traveling with you," Lana announced when they were back inside.

"That's the idea," said the Doctor absently as he worked the controls. "Had no plans on stopping."

"Well if we're going to do that, then we need to let our mother know we're ok," said Annie.

"I fixed your phones," said the Doctor. "Give your mum a ring if you like. I don't mind."

"No, we need to go in person," said Lana. "Just trust us on this."

"You want me to take you home," said the Doctor, suddenly understanding.

"Yes," said Annie.

"Just for a quick stop," said Lana in the next breath.

"We'll be in and out," Annie assured quickly.

"Then off to planets and history and whatever else you'd like to show us," Lana finished.

"Of course, easy," said the Doctor. "You can take me home to meet your mum. Should be fun. I can buy a new fez while we're stopped."

* * *

They directed the Doctor to materialize the TARDIS in the backyard of Lana's house. "When we get there, let us do the talking," Lana said nervously. "It's best if she doesn't know…everything."

"You're going to lie," said the Doctor. "Yes, that's probably best."

"No, I'm going to tell her as much of the truth as she should know," said Lana irritably.

"Can I drive?" asked Annie eagerly.

"No," said Lana, rolling her eyes at her sister. "Blue is my car and I drive her."

"But this car is white," said the Doctor as they all got in.

"Yes, but her name is Blue," said Lana.

"Well that's a stupid name for a white car," said the Doctor bluntly.

"Well the Doctor's a stupid name for a time traveling alien," said Annie just as bluntly.

"Don't you listen to the mean alien man," said Lana as she lovingly patted the dashboard and resolutely ignored the Doctor. She started up the car and some Top 40 dance beat started playing over the radio.

Annie rolled her eyes at the choice of music. "Hey Lana, do you have any glow sticks in your bag? I need them to hang myself with."

"My car, my music," Lana said. "You know that."

They started off down the road at a considerable speed. "What's your hurry?" the Doctor exclaimed, bracing himself. "Don't they have speed limits around here?"

"I like to think of them more as speed suggestions," said Lana calmly as she careened the car around a corner.

"I don't know what your problem is," said Annie irritably. "This isn't that different than when you fly the TARDIS."

"This is completely different," argued the Doctor. "I'm maneuvering a complicated machine through the time vortex and you're just driving down a road. Don't you follow any rules? That was a stop sign! I realize you're American, but that's no excuse to drive like we're in a drag race."

"I slowed down," Lana defended herself. "And I've got no problem with rules that make sense. Speed limits only make sense to me as suggestions."

"Yes, well I'd rather like to meet your mum while still in one piece," said the Doctor. "I happen to like this personality, I'll have you know. You're liable to give someone a heart attack driving at these speeds. It's just lucky for you I have a spare."

"Oh, relax, you bow-tie wearing buffoon," chided Annie. "Lana's a good driver. You'll be fine."

When they arrived to the simple suburban home, the Doctor got out of the car and in a dramatic flourish, dropped down to his knees and kissed the gravel driveway. "We made it! I'm alive!"

Annie gave him a light kick in his ribs. "Quit being such a baby!"

"Right, of course," said the Doctor, jumping back up again in one swift motion. "Meeting the mum. Need to make a good impression," he said as he checked his reflection in the car window, straightening his bow tie. "Not like last time…or the time before that…or that other time. Actually, forget all those times. Brand new me! Geronimo!"

"Ma, we're back!" Annie called out as they entered the house through the front door.

Bonnie came into the room wearing a lavender sweater. Lana and Annie both greeted her with a hug, Bonnie's blonde wavy hair a contrast to both of their darker shade. Then her eyes fell upon the Doctor. "So who's this then?" she asked curiously.

The Doctor stepped forward with a big friendly grin on his face. "Hello, you must be Mrs. Anderson, so lovely to meet you." He leaned in giving air kisses at each cheek. "I'm the Doctor, by the way. I've heard all about you."

"Call me Bonnie," she said looking enamored. "So Lana, you've gone and found yourself a doctor then. It's about time you found yourself a man," she said throwing her a sly wink.

"No, no he's just a friend," Lana quickly and firmly insisted, horrified at what her mother was suggesting.

"Well are you here with Annie then?" said Bonnie suddenly concerned as she turned toward her other daughter. "Sweetheart, I know you must be upset, but this is much too soon."

"Yeah, Ma, you're right, it is too soon," said Annie frustrated. "Which is why he's just a friend…a friend to both of us. Seriously, Ma, you think I'd go for him? He wears bow ties."

"Bow ties are cool," said the Doctor defensively as he straightened it.

"Shut up," said Annie.

"Now, Annie, you don't need to be so rude," Bonnie scolded, then turned her most hospitable smile to the Doctor. "So you're British, you must like tea right?"

"Oh, I'd love a nice cuppa," said the Doctor cheerfully. "You don't have any Jammy Dodgers do you?"

"I'll see what I can do," she said with a smile. "Girls, come help me in the kitchen."

Lana and Annie obediently went to help their mother, leaving the Doctor in the living room alone.

"Well Lana, I realize you're probably just being picky then," said Bonnie, as soon as they were in the kitchen. "A nice handsome man, a doctor, nice to your mother…could do worse."

"Why is this always the first place you go to when we come around with a new friend?" asked Lana.

"I just think it'd be nice if you found someone, sweetheart," said Bonnie.

"Like we said, he's just a friend," Lana said sternly.

"Actually," the Doctor interjected, poking his head in, "your daughters are both quite lovely, but I assure you I have no interest in them beyond friendship. As it turns out, I'm a married man." Just as quickly as he had popped in, he popped right back out again.

"Did you hear that, Ma? He's married," said Annie, seizing on the Doctor's statement.

"Well I don't understand," said Bonnie, confused. "If neither of you are bringing home a new boyfriend, then what is he doing here?"

"Well if you weren't busy jumping to conclusions, we would've told you," said Lana.

"The Doctor here is our new friend we met on vacation," said Annie in a soothing voice.

"And we've decided to go traveling with him for a little while," added Lana, keeping up the calming demeanor.

"Traveling where?" asked Bonnie suspiciously.

"Wherever we end up," said Annie. "We haven't really got a plan in mind."

"Well," said Bonnie, seeming to accept the explanation, "how was Scotland then? Lana, did you find a nice man in a kilt like I told you?"

Lana rolled her eyes at her mother. "Actually I had to run away from a few of them."

"Run away?" said Bonnie confused. "Why on Earth would you do that?"

"Somehow I don't think they were after my sparkling personality," said Lana dryly.

"Really, Lana, you shouldn't be so picky," scolded Bonnie. "It's time you settled down with a nice man and had some children. I'd like to be a grandmother before I die, you know."

"Yes, Ma, I know," said Lana annoyed. "You don't let me forget."

"Really, what was wrong with your last boyfriend? Ricky?" asked Bonnie.

"I told you already, he was clingy," said Lana.

"Well what about Paul?" she continued.

"Unemployed," said Lana curtly.

"Calvin?"

"Felon."

"Enrique?"

"Turned out to be gay."

"And you and Daniel were so good together," added Bonnie.

"Ma, we are not talking about Daniel, do you understand?" said Lana, a dangerous tone creeping into her voice.

"Ok, fine, have it your way," said Bonnie, frustrated. "Now Annie…"

Annie cringed now the attention was turned on her. "Yes Ma?" she said with a false strained sweetness to her voice.

"I need to talk to you about Max," said Bonnie sternly.

"I don't want to talk about Max. Under no circumstances do I want to talk about Max right now," said Annie clenching her teeth.

"But did you have to punch him?" said Bonnie. "I know you were upset, but he's pressing charges. And now I'm certain there's no chance you two will be able to work things out."

"Work things out!?" Annie burst out. "There was never going to be any working things out after that! And I don't care that he's pressing charges. I'll pay a fine or something, so what?"

"Annie, this is serious, I need you to take this seriously," scolded Bonnie.

"I need a cigarette," said Annie, storming out the back door.

"Me, too," added Lana, following behind her sister.

"You don't smoke," Bonnie called after her.

"I know," she answered just before shutting the door.

* * *

The Doctor looked around the living room while the three women were talking in the kitchen. They probably thought they were being discreet, but he could hear every word of course. Not their fault, they didn't take into account his superior time lord senses. He did his best to ignore it. He always was a bit uncomfortable around this particular aspect of humanity. Domestic squabbles…he could find the most brilliant humans there ever were to travel with and they were always still so…human.

The room was decorated with family photos and memorabilia, old piano trophies, crafts created and lovingly given as gifts over Christmases, Easters, and Mother's Days, preserved as artifacts of childhood. The Doctor picked up an historical romance from the coffee table and leafed through it. "Well that ended on a bit of a cliffhanger," he muttered to himself. He tapped on the glass of a large aquarium. "Hello," he said to the fish. "Oh, they're always like this?" He heard the back door slam as Lana and Annie stormed out. "That's a yes."

Bonnie let out a deep weary sigh as she looked out the back window to see her daughters disappearing into the tree house. She returned to the living room offering the Doctor a hot cup of tea. "Doctor…I'm sorry I don't think I caught your full name?"

"Just the Doctor," he said.

"Yes, well Doctor," she continued. "I realize that this is the part where I should give you some stern warning about keeping my girls safe or looking after them or interrogating you about just where the hell you come from or telling you to stay away from them or some other protective motherly thing. But if you've known them for even five minutes, then I think you know as well as I do that it won't matter what I say or what you do. If they've decided to go with you, then that's what they'll do. You can try to take care of them if you like, but they'll just take care of each other. And they'll leave their poor old mother behind."

"They have their mobiles," said the Doctor pointedly. "You can talk to them whenever you like."

"They don't want me bothering them," said Bonnie with a resigned sigh and just a hint of motherly guilt. "The only reason I call at all is so they don't slip away entirely."

The Doctor was looking at the family photos on the mantel as he sipped his tea. He noticed a picture of Lana and Annie together with a teenage boy. He was slim and just slightly taller than Annie with dirty blonde hair the same shade as Bonnie's in a mess upon his head. "Who's this?" he asked Bonnie curiously.

"Oh, that's…that's their brother Adam," said Bonnie, her voice faltering slightly.

"Oh, they didn't tell me they had a brother," said the Doctor cheerfully.

"Well, they wouldn't have," said Bonnie hesitantly. "They don't usually talk about him. He died in a car accident a few years ago."

"Oh," said the Doctor, mentally storing away that bit of information. "I'm very sorry."

"Well, Lana and Annie were always close;" said Bonnie sadly, "but that accident took something from them. They cling to each other to hold on to what they lost. But that doesn't leave anything left for me, now that their father's no longer with us…"

The Doctor quietly put a hand on her shoulder, a small comfort while she was lost in contemplation. "Oh, listen to me jabbering on," she said suddenly snapping out of it. She took another glance to the backyard toward the tree house. "It looks like those two are still cooling down. Oh," she added as she glanced toward the next yard over, "it looks like the neighbor's got a new statue."

"Oh that's lovely," said the Doctor coming up beside Bonnie to see. His face fell when he saw the statue, an angel with its hands over its face as if crying. "Er, maybe not. Bonnie, stay here…I'll go out and talk to them." He hoped against hope that Bonnie would listen as he rushed out to the backyard.


	13. Angel in the Backyard

Annie climbed the ladder into the tree house with Lana close on her heels. As soon as they were settled, Annie lit up her cigarette and took a long, deep inhale of smoke, letting the nicotine rush calm her. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, not needing to say anything. "We probably shouldn't have left the Doctor in there alone with her," said Lana finally.

"He'll be fine," said Annie dismissively. "Ma seems to like him anyway."

"Mmph, I'm not sure she's completely convinced that he's not my new boyfriend," said Lana, rolling her eyes. "That's just what I need."

Annie let out a small laugh. "Yeah, the fact that he said he's married will only keep her off the trail for so long. Do you think he's really married?"

"I'm sure he's probably lying," Lana scoffed. "I mean he's not wearing a wedding ring. I hope Ma doesn't notice that."

"You know I'm surprised you don't have more of a problem with him," Annie observed as she took another puff of her cigarette. "I mean, what with the casual lying and not to mention he's a doctor."

"Well I'm not saying I trust him or anything," Lana said defensively. "It's just…I mean there is so much I can learn from him. Plus, I feel like…I don't know, it's hard to explain."

"Almost like we're with him for a reason," Annie suggested.

"Yeah," Lana agreed. "But of course that would be completely irrational," she added quickly.

"Lana, do you think time can be rewritten?" she asked seriously, thinking of the strange dream she'd had.

"I suppose so," said Lana contemplatively. "I mean, the Doctor says it can. I don't exactly have a better source to go off."

"Do you think we can change it?" asked Annie quietly.

Lana didn't have to ask what her sister meant. "We can't bring him back," she said sternly.

"But what if we could?" asked Annie insistently. "What if we could just get back to that morning in May? If time can be rewritten…"

"The Doctor says we can't go back on our own personal timelines," said Lana. "He says a paradox like that could rip a hole in reality, which would be bad. But forget about what the Doctor says, just think about it. If we changed that, we don't know how our lives would change. The last three years rewritten…"

"But what if we just asked him?" tried Annie.

"He'd never go for it," argued Lana.

"But…" Annie was cut off from arguing further as the Doctor popped his head up through the floor of the tree house.

"We need to go right now," he said urgently.

Lana let out a resigned sigh. "I knew we shouldn't have left him in there alone with her. Sorry, Doctor. I'll come down and diffuse whatever happened."

"No, we need to leave," insisted the Doctor with a slight edge of panic to his voice. He had paid them only the briefest glance and then was looking over his shoulder.

"You know you look a little like a whack-a-mole poking your head up here like that," Annie commented with a grin. "I'm sure we probably have a mallet laying around up here somewhere."

"We need to leave, I'm being serious," said the Doctor in a panic.

"You didn't tell her you're an alien did you?" asked Lana concerned. "I'm sure she probably won't believe you, but still that might take some explaining."

"No, your mum's lovely," said the Doctor dismissively. "This has nothing to do with her and everything to do with a dangerous creature in your neighbor's backyard."

He pulled himself up and pointed out the angel to them. It hadn't yet moved. "Doctor, are you feeling alright?" Lana asked putting a hand up to his forehead. "That is a statue."

"Don't look away, don't blink," commanded the Doctor. "It's only a statue when you're looking. That is a weeping angel."

Lana transfixed her gaze on the Doctor. "Ok, you look properly scared. That is just a statue. There's a bunch more just like it in the graveyard over the hill."

"The weeping angels are quantum locked," explained the Doctor quickly. "As long as another living thing is looking at them they remain stone. Luckily, we're out in the open and its daylight. If we keep our eyes on them, we might get away. But before you two argue with me further, close your eyes for a moment."

"What are you talking about, you bow tie wearing buffoon?" demanded Annie.

"Just do it," he ordered firmly. "Close your eyes."

Lana and Annie obediently closed their eyes.

"Open your eyes and look again," commanded the Doctor after a moment. The statue had moved forward several feet.

"Holy Bermuda, it moved!" Annie exclaimed startled as she jumped back.

"Do you believe me now?" said the Doctor.

"Our eyes were only closed for a few seconds, Doctor," said Lana nervously. "It moved that fast?"

"Faster than that," said the Doctor. "I made sure both of your eyes were closed, and then I blinked. It moved that far in the time of one single blink. You said there's a graveyard nearby?"

"Yeah, just over that hill," Annie pointed to an open field that lay beyond the fenced in yard. "There are a few statues like this in there."

"But they've always been there," added Lana. "Why would it just now decide to come out? And what's it going to do?"

"The angels kill by sending their victims backwards in time," explained the Doctor in rapid pace, never looking away. "They feed off the potential energy of all the years you would've lived in the present. One touch, that's all it takes. And you're time travelers now. That gives off a unique type of energy that must've drawn this one out."

"How do we kill it?" asked Annie.

"We don't," said the Doctor firmly. "They've evolved the perfect defense. They are quantum locked. They turn to stone the moment any other living thing is looking at it. And you can't kill a stone. All we can do is run, and hope we're lucky."

"You've obviously seen these before," said Lana. "How did you get away then?"

"I got lucky," he said.

Just then, Bonnie came out into the backyard. "Ok, this is quite enough nonsense. I know you're upset with me, but come in and have a nice visit before you run off."

"Bonnie, I told you to wait inside the house!" shouted the Doctor.

"Yes, you did, but I'm done waiting around," said Bonnie crossly.

"Ma, do like he says and go back into the house," said Lana nervously, focusing her attention over to her mother. Bonnie had her back to the angel and walked right past it oblivious.

"Now you girls can be upset with me all you like, but I'm still your mother and I won't have you talking to me like…" Suddenly, Bonnie was gone, the angel stood frozen in her place with one arm outstretched.


	14. Tiny Little Paradox

_Just then, Bonnie came out into the backyard. "Ok, this is quite enough nonsense. I know you're upset with me, but come in and have a nice visit before you run off."_

_"Bonnie, I told you to wait inside the house!" shouted the Doctor._

_"Yes, you did, but I'm done waiting around," said Bonnie crossly._

_"Ma, do like he says and go back into the house," said Lana nervously, focusing her attention over to her mother. Bonnie had her back to the angel and walked right past it oblivious._

_"Now you girls can be upset with me all you like, but I'm still your mother and I won't have you talking to me like…" Suddenly, Bonnie was gone, the angel stood frozen in her place with one arm outstretched._

"Ma!" Annie screamed out and made a move to run toward the spot, but the Doctor grabbed her by the arm.

"Stay put, it's too late and I'm sorry," said the Doctor frantically.

Lana stared horrified at the angel that stood in the place of her mother. "Can…can we go get her?" Lana asked, trying to remain composed. "You said it sends them back in time, so we can go get her right? I don't know how we explain the TARDIS to her, but we can go get her."

"We don't know where it sent her," said the Doctor regretfully. "I'm sorry, but it's too late. We need to go, or it'll take us, too."

The three of them climbed the ladder out of the tree house, each of them careful not to take their eyes off the statue. Once on the ground, Annie said, "But there has to be a way to fight this thing."

"There isn't," said the Doctor. "We just need to leave."

"How can we leave if the second we turn our backs it gets us?" said Lana.

"We keep our eyes on it as long as possible and hope we get lucky," said the Doctor.

"Can't we just smash it?" asked Annie.

"No, you can't kill a stone," said the Doctor.

"You've got a point, Annie," said Lana. "I'll keep my eyes on it. Go get the sledgehammer out of the tool shed."

"That's not going to help," insisted the Doctor, but Annie had already taken off to retrieve the sledgehammer.

Lana kept a steady gaze on the statue. "How do you know it won't work? Have you ever tried it?"

"It won't work," said the Doctor. "Annie, no!" But Annie was already coming at the angel, sledgehammer in hand. She raised the heavy tool above her head and brought it down over the slab of stone sending small bits of rock flying in all directions. She swung again, and again, and again until the pile of rocks was unrecognizable.

"Seems to work just fine," said Annie, tossing the sledgehammer over the shards of her handiwork.

The Doctor approached Annie hesitantly, not taking his eyes off the pile of stones. He held his hand out to her, and gently pulled her away. "Just back up," he said slowly.

"But it's safe now, isn't it?" said Lana. "She just broke it to pieces; we should be able to go."

"I wouldn't be too sure," said the Doctor cautiously.

"What do you mean you wouldn't be too sure?" burst out Annie. "I got it, that's done. Shame it doesn't bring our mother back! Maybe if you weren't too dense to think of this sooner, everything would just be all better!" She stomped at the Doctor and shoved him to the ground.

"Annie, calm down, it's not his fault," said Lana, pulling her sister back. But her voice wavered.

"Lana, Annie, look behind you," said the Doctor, looking past them.

"I told you, I got it," Annie said sharply. "Brute force wins the day."

"Look behind you," said the Doctor more forcefully.

Lana and Annie slowly turned around, expecting to see the same pile of rubble. In its place, about half a dozen small cherubs stood with menacing looks on their faces. "I told you, you can't kill a stone," said the Doctor.

"How is that possible?" said Lana.

"Never mind that, it's time to run!" said the Doctor. He grabbed both of them by their hands and urged them in the direction of Lana's car. "We need to get back to the TARDIS!"

In the time their backs were turned, the cherubs had advanced halfway down the driveway. "Get in! Get in!" he urged. "Lana, forget everything I said about your driving earlier!"

"Alright, Blue, give it all you got," Lana whispered to the car with a pat on the dashboard before she started the ignition and peeled out into the street.

"Annie, help me watch the angels!" the Doctor ordered.

"You don't need to tell me twice," she said as the car careened down the road. Their attention was thwarted for a moment as Lana hit a pothole and the cherubs moved closer again.

"Can you try to avoid the bumps?" the Doctor shouted.

"I can't avoid the bumps!" Lana shot back. "It's a bumpy road!" She hit another bump which gave enough moment's distraction for two of the small statues to grip onto the car.

"Can those things get in?" asked Annie in a panic. "They can't get in can they?"

"They're incredibly strong," said the Doctor. "They can get in if they want to, but I wouldn't worry about that quite yet."

"Well what would you worry about first, global warming?" said Lana sarcastically.

"No," said the Doctor as the car came to a sudden stop, engines dying. "I'd worry about that first."

"What's happened?" asked Annie in a worried tone, as Lana tried in vain to restart the ignition.

"They've drained the power from your battery," said the Doctor frantically. "Don't take your eyes off them."

"Do you have a plan?" asked Lana, her voice choked with fear as she stared at the group of cherubs hoping to stop their advance.

"The plan was to get back to the TARDIS," said the Doctor. "Might be a bit difficult now…c'mon, we need to get out. Keep looking at them."

"We're at the cemetery," commented Annie, pointing at the entrance they were stopped in front of. "This is where it came from."

"Alright then, new plan," said the Doctor. "We split up."

"How is that in any way a good plan?" chastised Lana. "More eyes are good right?"

"They feed on potential energy," explained the Doctor in rapid fire fashion. "I'm a better meal than you are. I should be able to lead them away and keep the two of you safe. Get back to the TARDIS and then call me."

"They'll get you before we can get to the TARDIS!" Lana argued.

"Yes," agreed the Doctor. "And you'll be safe. I'm not letting this happen again. You are my responsibility and in danger now because of me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" said Annie. "We are not your responsibility. And what do you mean again?"

"Nothing," said the Doctor quickly. "It's nothing. Just do as I say."

"Doctor, we're not leaving you here for the angels," said Lana. "That's not a plan we can stick with."

"The worst they can do is send me back in time," the Doctor tried to reassure them. "Your phone can reach me whenever I'm at and if you have the TARDIS, I can instruct you back to me."

"Now you'll let me drive," muttered Annie.

"No offense, Doctor," said Lana nervously, "but is this really the best time for flying lessons? Wouldn't it be better for them to send us back in time and you fly to pick us up? Maybe we'll even get lucky and it'll send us the same place as Ma. She's gotta be having kittens; we can calm her down."

"They're more likely to follow me," said the Doctor. "And I can't let them near the TARDIS."

"And all they can do is send you back in time?" said Lana. "They can't hurt you otherwise?"

"That's it, I promise," said the Doctor. "Now go, just go."

"Your plan still sucks," interjected Annie.

"It's the best plan we've got," said the Doctor.

"No it's not," argued Annie. "It's really not." She pointed up the road in the direction they would have gone. Four more adult angels were blocking their path.

"We seem to be surrounded, Doctor," said Lana, attempting to remain calm.

"Well, yes, ten points for stating the obvious," said the Doctor sarcastically.

"Well there's nowhere to go, so what now?" demanded Annie.

"That's not entirely true, we can go into the cemetery," said the Doctor.

"Won't there be more of them in there?" Annie pointed out.

"Most likely, yes," said the Doctor.

"Maybe we just let them send us into the past," suggested Lana. "How bad can that really be?"

"Well you're right of course, that wouldn't be so horrible," said the Doctor. "You could live out a good long life in the past…unless of course they just snap our necks."

"What?" shrieked Annie.

"You said that sending us to the past was the worst thing they could do," said Lana, panic rising in her voice more and more with every word.

"I lied," admitted the Doctor.

"That's horrible!" accused Lana.

"Ok, so through the creepy angel infested graveyard then?" said Annie. "My idea of a party."

"At least it's not a dark and stormy night," muttered Lana.

"Let's go we need to get moving," the Doctor encouraged.

The three of them then did the only thing they could do. They ran. They ran through the cemetery, passing the rows of headstones, floral memorials, and mausoleums, each looking over their shoulders every few moments to see the angels standing just a little closer. They wondered each time they passed a new statue if it was actually an angel. They didn't have to wonder long because the number of statues behind them increased the deeper into the graveyard they went, until there were more than two dozen stone monsters looming behind them.

Suddenly, the Doctor tripped, tumbling into a creek bed. "Doctor!" Lana and Annie cried out in unison, rushing over to help him.

"Don't worry about me! Don't look away!" the Doctor ordered. Lana and Annie quickly turned back to see the statues had advanced dangerously close.

"Doctor, there's no way out!" said Lana frantically. "We're surrounded. They have us!"

"Wait a tic, what is this?" said the Doctor excitedly from the creek as he started scanning around with his sonic screwdriver thinking he may have found a glimmer of hope.

"It's a creek; I think there's more important things to worry about right now!" shouted Lana.

"Like impending death," said Annie. "That's definitely top of my priority list."

"It's not just a creek," said the Doctor, checking the readings on his screwdriver. "It's leaking temporal energy. There is a rift in space time running right through here. No wonder the angels are here."

"That's fascinating!" said Lana sarcastically. "I'm always thrilled to learn something new, really I am, but did we mention impending death?"

Annie reached out and gripped her sister's hand. "I don't see a way out of this. It's been one hell of an adventure, though."

"Just let me think for a minute," said the Doctor. "Keep watching the angels; don't blink."

"Well hurry up and think of something then," demanded Annie. "We can't keep this up forever."

"I'm going to do something I probably shouldn't," said the Doctor.

"What's that?" asked Annie.

"When I tell you, I need you both to close your eyes and jump in here," said the Doctor.

"Why would we do that?" said Lana nervously. "They'll get us if we blink."

"I'm opening up a small crack of this rift," said the Doctor. "I'll explain later, but right now I need you to trust me."

"I don't trust doctors," said Lana.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" said Annie.

"I suppose there's nothing else to do but what he says," said Lana. "There's no way out."

They could hear the familiar pitch of the sonic screwdriver as the Doctor opened a small temporal crack leaking a golden light. "Jump now!" he shouted. Lana and Annie both closed their eyes. Hand in hand, they jumped.

* * *

When they opened their eyes, they all found themselves back in the tree house. "How are we back here?" asked Lana, confused.

"We moved," said the Doctor simply as he cheerfully tweaked her nose.

"What happened?" asked Annie, equally confused.

"I resonated the temporal energy within the rift just enough to create a space time anomaly, cancelling out the events," explained the Doctor. "By being at the center of the anomaly, we created a tiny little paradox which eliminated the angels and reverted time previous to our interaction."

"Wait a second," said Lana. "Did you just say you erased time?"

"More or less," said the Doctor. "Good to see you're keeping up."

"So we're back where we started," said Annie. "No angels?"

"No angels," the Doctor confirmed with a wide grin on his face.

"But if you erased time, it basically didn't happen," said Lana. "How can we remember something that hasn't happened?"

"You're time travelers now," said the Doctor. "It changes the way you see the world."

Lana and Annie laughed, happy to be alive and unable to resist the Doctor's infectious grin. They all embraced in a big group hug, but then suddenly Lana and Annie looked at each other and remembered, "Ma!"

They scrambled down the ladder as quickly as they could, meeting their mother at the back door and tackling her with a hug. "What's gotten into you two?" said Bonnie, confused.

"We're just so happy to see you," said Lana.

"We love you so much, Ma," said Annie.

The Doctor came up behind them, and pulled the group in for a big hug. "Nice family moment, feeling the love. I'll just leave you to it then." He turned and started walking away from the house.

Lana and Annie exchanged a knowing look as they saw the Doctor walking away. Lana gave their mother a quick peck on the cheek. "Give us just a minute, will you Ma?"

"Just where in the hell do you think you're going?" Annie demanded as they ran after him.

"You've got your mum to see to," said the Doctor with a shrug. "I thought I'd get going. It's dangerous for you to be around me."

"Don't get me wrong, we're quite pleased to see her alive and in the present," said Lana. "But she's just going to start driving us nuts again in about five minutes."

"We still want to come with you," Annie added. "We don't mind a little danger."

"We understand the risks," said Lana. "And what about you? Aren't you lonely traveling around all by yourself?"

"Well…if you're sure," said the Doctor as his face lit up with a wide smile and he pulled the two of them in for a hug. "All of space and time…what could be more fun?"

* * *

In 1996, a soft golden light reflected from a nondescript creek bed in a cemetery. Time had been rewritten.


	15. An Old Friend

**A/N: Thank you to my new follows and favorites and apologies for the long wait for this update. The good news is that I now have enough written to guarantee weekly updates for at least the next 7 weeks. Hopefully, by then I'll have the next adventure written and will be able to keep up with that schedule, but no promises as I have to find the time to work on this story in between my two jobs. I'd love to see some reviews, feel free to let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy and thank you for the continued support. **

Lana and Annie bounded back onto the TARDIS close on the Doctor's heels. "So where to next?" asked Annie excitedly. "Is there a planet with fire breathing monsters?"

"Or some history?" suggested Lana hopefully. "How about we go meet Beethoven? I bet that'd be brilliant!"

"Ooh, maybe a trip to the old West!" said Annie. "I could be a cowgirl." She made playful shooting gestures as she skipped around the console.

"Oh I know! We could see the Horsehead nebula up close," added Lana with glee.

They continued to rattle off suggestions back and forth while the Doctor adjusted settings on the console with a manic grin on his face at their enthusiasm. "We can go anywhere you like. How about all of the above? The entire universe at your feet."

Before Lana and Annie could make up their minds on where to go first, they were interrupted by the distinct sound of a ringing telephone. "Is that a phone ringing?" asked Annie, taken aback. "You have a phone in here?"

"Why wouldn't he have a phone?" said Lana pointedly. "It is a phone box after all."

"Yes, a phone," said the Doctor with a distracted wave of the hand, not looking up from the instruments on the console. "Speaking of which, I am a bit busy. Would one of you be a dear and answer that?"

Annie crossed her arms indignantly. "I'm not answering your phone for you. You do it; you're right next to it."

"Yes, but I'm busy and you're not," said the Doctor, crossly as he continued to fiddle with instruments.

"Well you can answer your own phone and I can drive," said Annie, not budging in her position.

"You absolutely cannot," argued the Doctor as the ringing persisted, not looking up from his work.

Finally, Lana rolled her eyes and let out a heaving sigh as she strode over and picked up the phone. "Hello, you've reached the TARDIS," she answered in a mock friendly tone. "The Doctor apparently believes me to be his secretary and is far too busy to come to the phone right now even though he's standing right next to me. I mean, this isn't important or anything right? Do you often just ring up magnificent time ships just to chat?"

"Give me that," said the Doctor, reaching to snatch the phone from Lana's hand, but she quickly moved away to the other side of the console.

"Sarah Jane Smith you say?" said Lana into the phone, smirking as she stayed just out of the Doctor's reach. "Do you know him well? Does he make a habit of this sort of thing? I mean… is all this promise of the whole of time and space just a lure so he'll have someone around to fetch his coffee?"

The Doctor was now attempting to climb over the console to get to Lana who had been keeping a few steps ahead of him, but Annie grabbed him by his tweed to hold him in place, giggling as she did so. The TARDIS made a wheezing sound of disapproval.

"Oh, he is rather keen to speak to you by now," Lana confided to Sarah Jane. "But if he really wanted to talk so bad, he should've answered his own phone…oh, don't worry, my sister's got hold of him."

"Now, really, that's quite enough," said the Doctor in a frustrated, scolding tone as he finally broke free of Annie's grip and snatched the receiver from Lana who had now erupted into unguarded laughter with her sister at the spectacle.

"Sarah Jane," said the Doctor breathlessly into the phone. His expression changed to one of indignance. "What's so funny? It's bad enough that they're laughing at me, but you too? Really? Well, yes, obviously I'll come."

* * *

The TARDIS materialized on the pavement along the side of Bannerman Road. Lana and Annie ran excitedly toward the door, but the Doctor cut them off and blocked the way. "Now, Sarah Jane is a very dear friend of mine," he said nervously. "I don't want you to fight."

"Why would we do that?" asked Lana with a raised eyebrow. "She sounds brilliant."

"Well other than the fact that she's friends with you," Annie teased.

"Move out of the way," said Lana softly with a gentle nudge.

"Now," said Annie menacingly with a rough shove.

The Doctor reluctantly stepped aside looking slightly dubious, and Lana and Annie excitedly peeked out the door to see a woman patiently waiting on the sidewalk with a pleasant smile on her face. "Hello," she said, heading toward them. "Which one of you did I talk to on the phone?"

"That'd be me," said Lana with a grin. "I'm Lana, you must be Sarah Jane."

"And I'm Annie," added the other sister. "It's so great to meet you."

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS behind them and greeted her with a big grin on his face. "Sarah Jane," he said happily as he wrapped her in a big, enthusiastic hug.

"Oh, Doctor, it's so good to see you," she said happily.

"I never get tired of seeing you," said the Doctor.

"So how have you been?" asked Sarah Jane with a smile. "New friends I see. American, this time…that's different. Same old life I suppose."

"Yep that's me," agreed the Doctor. "Same old life, you've got it. You know me."

"So you're a friend of the Doctor's?" asked Lana curiously.

"Yes, I used to travel with him," said Sarah Jane. "We go way back."

"Sarah Jane…I kinda like that name," said Annie thoughtfully. "I thought I might name a daughter that someday. Although, I might think of a new way to spell it, just to be a bit different."

"Yeah, knowing you, you'd probably stick an 'e' in it or something," teased Lana.

"So obviously you've called for a reason," prompted the Doctor with a nervous glance from Lana and Annie to Sarah Jane.

"Yes of course," said Sarah Jane. "Why don't you come in and I'll explain over tea."

"Ooh, do you have coffee?" asked Annie hopefully.

"Word of advice, don't come between that one and her coffee," said the Doctor grinning and wringing his hands. "I learned that one the hard way."

"Well yes, I think I do," said Sarah Jane smiling warmly as she led them inside.

As the group sat around Sarah Jane's kitchen table, the Doctor commented, "It seems quiet around here. I'm not used to quiet around you…" Lana and Annie both looked at the Doctor with questioning glances. "Or any of my friends for that matter," he added. "Quiet usually equates to boring."

"Or ominous," muttered Lana as she stuffed a piece of toast into her mouth.

"Actually, Doctor, I think that's just you," suggested Annie.

"Well Luke's at Oxford," explained Sarah Jane as she sipped on her tea. "That's my son," she said with a nod at Lana and Annie. "That's actually why I called. I got a call from him a few days ago and he sounded a bit cryptic."

"No offense," said Lana, "but are you sure he's not just wanting a bit of space away from his mom? I mean, you seem great and all, but still…"

"Yeah," agreed Annie. "We love our mother, but sometimes…." She trailed off with a shudder of her shoulders.

"No, it's not like that," said Sarah Jane quickly shaking her head. "Luke is never short like that. Something's wrong."

"What did he say?" asked the Doctor with a tone of concern.

"Well I don't know," said Sarah Jane. "He said the people working on his research project were starting to act a bit strange. And that's what's even stranger. I tried to go there and look into it. But the whole campus is closed off right now for some top secret research project. Only students and faculty are allowed in. And I think Luke is wrapped up in it somehow."

"Well we could be students," suggested Annie.

"It might be fun to study at Oxford," agreed Lana.

"No, no, no," said the Doctor. "It's bound to be dangerous."

"Well if she can't get in, there's no way you could," said Lana pointedly. "You're too weird."

"They'd spot you a mile off," agreed Annie.

"No," insisted the Doctor again firmly.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," said Sarah Jane.

"See, she thinks we'll be fine," said Lana, seizing on the support.

"Perfectly fine," said Annie. "C'mon you bow tie wearing buffoon, you know we can do this."

"Fine, fine," said the Doctor, giving in. "Let's go have a look."


	16. An Old Enemy

They took the TARDIS to Oxford while making a plan. "Right so I don't want you two making a fuss," said the Doctor. "Just find out what they're researching and then get out of there."

"What makes you think we'd make a fuss?" asked Lana defensively.

"Because he tends to make friends who are as much trouble as he is," said Sarah Jane.

"Oi!" exclaimed the Doctor. "You're not helping."

"Oh she does know you well, doesn't she?" said Lana, who was liking Sarah Jane more and more.

"Look, if someone deserves it, I'm still hitting them," said Annie, stubbornly crossing her arms.

"Oh, come off it, Annie," chided Lana. "We're just dealing with admissions. They're pencil pushers. I doubt a fist fight's likely to break out. Besides, they are British."

"See that's what I mean by making a fuss," said the Doctor, shaking a finger at them. "Now Lana, your mobile's connected to the TARDIS. If you find any data on anything send it over so we can analyze it here."

"My own little hitchhiker's guide," said Lana smiling and waving her phone around.

Sarah Jane let out a soft chuckle. "I hope you remembered a towel."

"She's probably got one in her bag," joked Annie. "She's got everything else in there."

"Actually, I don't," said Lana, fishing through her bag. "I've got moist towelettes, but no towel. Do I need a towel?" she said with concern.

"Of course you don't," said the Doctor, agitated. "You've got me. I'm much more clever than a towel."

"More clever than a towel?" said Lana aghast. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? More confident? My mother's more clever than a towel. You've met her, you see how that's not really saying much?"

Sarah Jane and Annie had burst out laughing at this exchange. "You can just stop that right now," said the Doctor pointing at the pair of them.

"Oh, yes, I'm glad you find this all so amusing," said Lana sarcastically. "I ask a serious question, and he tells me he's more clever than a towel. The things I put up with." She threw her hands in the air in frustration.

"I just love seeing you worked up," said Annie teasingly to her sister.

"Love you, too, sis," said Lana, making a face.

"While you're in there, can you keep your eyes open for Luke?" said Sarah Jane. "He's spending a lot of time this term doing research for a new professor. I think it might be the same project. He wouldn't tell me any details."

"Got his picture," said Annie, patting her pocket. "We'll keep our eyes peeled."

* * *

Lana and Annie approached the main desk of admissions. "Can I help you?" asked the distracted receptionist, not looking away from her computer.

"Hi, we're students, transferring in," said Annie confidently.

"In the middle of the term?" asked the receptionist suspiciously.

"We're here for the research project," said Lana smoothly and without hesitation as it was the truth.

"They didn't tell us they were expecting transfers," said the receptionist in a frustrated and frazzled tone. "Do you have your paperwork?"

"Of course," said Annie, hoping the distracted woman didn't hear the slight hesitation in her voice. "Right here," she added as she handed over the Doctor's psychic paper.

"Oh you're with the Princeton exchange program," said the receptionist upon inspection of the paper. "Why didn't you just say so?" She began clicking away at her keyboard, bringing up some information on her computer. "It doesn't look like your transcripts have gotten here yet, but that's not unusual. I'm sure they'll be here in a day or two. Let me get the two of you some temporary identification."

Once the receptionist had set them up with ID cards and sent them in the right direction, Annie nudged her sister as they were walking away. "Princeton scholars now, huh? We're moving up in the world."

"We're in," Lana confirmed to the Doctor on the phone. "That was incredibly easy."

"I'm not surprised," said the Doctor from the TARDIS. "Most people don't want to look for things that aren't supposed to be there, so they're highly susceptible to psychic influence."

Lana rolled her eyes. "We'll call you back when we find something," she promised.

Lana and Annie easily found the research building and immediately saw why Sarah Jane hadn't been able to get in. The entire area was sectioned off with police tape and an officer was standing guard at the main door. He offered them a stern nod, stepping aside to let them in as they provided their temporary ID cards.

"Do you think this is the project her son Luke is working on?" Annie whispered to her sister as they walked along a corridor in the direction they had been told.

"Signs seem to be pointing that way," said Lana.

"Do you think whatever this is will be dangerous?" asked Annie with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Given our experience so far with the Doctor, I'd say probably yes," said Lana. "You don't need to sound so excited about that."

"Can't help it," said Annie with a grin. "Love an adventure."

"What are you two doing here?" said a young man approaching them. He looked to be in his early 20s, tall and skinny with a clean haircut in light brown.

Annie's goofy grin turned into a flirty smile. "Hey," she said. "We just transferred in from Princeton. We're here for the research project. I'm Annie, this is my sister Lana. And you are?"

"Mark," said the man as he returned the smile. "It looks like we're going to be working together then."

"Right, so this might sound like a funny question," interjected Lana. "But what exactly are we researching?"

"Well it's all top secret," said Mark. "We're all just thrilled for the opportunity. There's rumor going around that it's all to do with an alien, but I think someone just started that as a joke."

"Aliens? How crazy would that be?" Annie giggled, smirking to herself.

"Oh, that'd be wild," agreed Lana with a knowing look at her sister.

"I've got to say your timing's a bit rubbish though," said Mark. "The whole lab's stepped out for lunch not five minutes ago. I was running a bit behind wrapping up my notes. I don't suppose you'd care for a bite?" he said the last looking at Annie.

"I could eat," said Annie with a nod.

"Ah, I've got a snack in my bag," said Lana, seeing where this was going. "I wouldn't mind having a look at the lab anyway, if you could just point me in the right direction?"

"Just down the hall and to the left," said Mark, pointing the way. "Shall we?" he added, offering his arm to Annie.

"Oh, yes, let's go," said Annie accepting his arm with an enticing smile.

Lana threw one last glance back at her sister before disappearing down the hall in the direction of the lab.

* * *

Lana found the lab with no problem and it was empty. A few scattered papers had been left out, but other than that the room was bare, a few computers and some equipment covered in sheets. Everyone had apparently gone to lunch just like Mark had said. She thought that was a little strange, but she started looking around anyway. She found a computer and started looking at the files. She plugged her phone into it and started downloading information. Then she put an earpiece in and called the Doctor.

* * *

The Doctor was telling Sarah Jane stories of his recent travels while they waited. "…and then a pterodactyl swooped in and took the fez right off my head!"

Sarah Jane laughed. "Oh, Doctor. All these years, so many regenerations, but you never really change do you?"

"No I suppose not," said the Doctor, and then the phone rang. "Oh, there they are, right on schedule."

"It's me," Lana's voice came over the phone. "I've got you connected to their computer files should be able to see it. Funny, for all the secrecy around this project, they don't seem to mind sending everyone to lunch at once."

"Oh, good work, you clever thing," said the Doctor happily as he looked at the information coming through on the TARDIS monitor. "Is your sister there with you?"

"No, she went to lunch with a boy from the lab," said Lana.

"I thought I told you two not to make a fuss," scolded the Doctor.

"Well she hasn't punched anybody yet," said Lana pointedly. "At least not that I know of…and she got him out of the way so I could have a look in private. I'd say that's not making a fuss."

"Have you seen any sign of Luke?" interjected Sarah Jane.

"Not yet," said Lana.

"Lana, I see notes here about some sort of a machine, but there aren't any schematics on it," said the Doctor as he looked over the information streaming in on his monitor. "Do you see it anywhere?"

"I'll have a look," said Lana and she began looking around the room. It wasn't long before she found a large piece of equipment covered by a sheet. She pulled the sheet away and gasped. "Doctor," she said weakly, "I've found it."

"That's brilliant," said the Doctor excitedly. "Tell me what it looks like."

"I've seen it before," said Lana, her voice shaking slightly. "This is the same machine that Father Mungo was using."

"The same one?" said the Doctor, suddenly concerned. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," said Lana. "The same machine. We saw it in 15th century Scotland and now it's here at Oxford. How is that possible?" She didn't add the last part she was thinking, that it was also in her childhood nightmares. What had started as a small discomfort in the 15th century had now grown into a nagging fear that this was more than coincidence. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

"I'm sorry," interjected Sarah Jane, "but would you mind telling me what's going on? What machine?"

"The machine… it can control minds, manipulate DNA, open portals through time and space," said the Doctor. "And now it's here."

"You said it was scavenged," said Lana. "Scavenged from where?"

"It's not Earth technology," said the Doctor.

"Yes, I got that bit, thanks," said Lana sarcastically. "What's it doing here? Oh, hold on, someone's coming." She quickly threw the sheet back over the machine hid behind it out of sight.

"Lana, are you alright?" the Doctor asked tentatively after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, fine," Lana whispered back.

"Why are you being quiet?" said the Doctor. "Is someone there?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's seen me," whispered Lana.

"It?" said Sarah Jane. "You mean it's not a person?"

"No," said Lana. "It's…well, I think it's security. That would explain why they didn't mind leaving the lab unattended."

"Lana, what does it look like?" said the Doctor.

"Well this sort of robot drone sort of thing," said Lana. "It's this goldish colored metal and cylindrical. Looks a bit like R2-D2 but with these kinda bumps all over it."

"R2-D2?" said the Doctor.

"Oh, from Star Wars," said Sarah Jane, "American film."

"Not ringing any bells?" said Lana. "Well it was never my favorite either. Tell you what, I'll just find out what it is." She pointed her camera phone discreetly at the metallic thing and snapped a photo.

"R2-D2…R2-D2…" the Doctor muttered to himself. "What looks like R2-D2?"

"Doctor," said Sarah Jane, with a sudden look of worry across her face. "I think I know what it is…"

Comprehension dawned on the Doctor, "Lana you need to get out of there."

"Hold on, I'm finding out what this is," said Lana, brushing him off. "Let's see, it says here that it's a dalek…it also says…oh, that's not good."

"Lana you need to get out of there now," said the Doctor urgently. "Just get out of there now!"

"Too late," said Lana with a deep swallow of air. "I think it's found me."

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER FOUND! THE INTRUDER MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" It was the last thing Sarah Jane and the Doctor heard before the line went dead.


	17. A Cunning Plan

Annie had gone with Mark to a nearby crowded cafeteria for lunch. "So," she said as she nibbled on a sandwich, "what's this rumor about an alien?"

"Oh, it's just a story someone started because we don't know what's really going on," said Mark with a shrug.

"Well what do you know?" asked Annie curiously.

"Well they don't tell us much," said Mark. "But my group has been working on something to do with genetics."

"That's so interesting," said Annie, leaning in with a smile. "It must be pretty important with a policeman standing guard instead of just campus security."

"Like I said, top secret," said Mark with a conspiratorial wink.

"But don't you even get curious?" asked Annie.

Mark didn't answer, but instead cocked his head to one side as a strange look came across his face. "What's wrong?" she said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"You have traveled in time," said Mark in monotone, staring at her blankly.

"What did you say?" said Annie, her guard up. "How did you know that?"

"You will be necessary," he continued in the same bland monotone.

"Necessary for what?" demanded Annie. "You better knock this off or I'll knock you out."

"You will come with me," said Mark standing up and moving toward her. "I must report back to my master." A long, thin tube began protruding from his forehead.

"I don't think so," said Annie roughly as she punched him in the strange apparatus.

The eyestalk cracked and sparked and Mark's neck began to twitch robotically. Annie watched cautiously, ready for a fight, when suddenly a boy appeared and grabbed her hand giving her one simple instruction. "Run!"

The pair of them got out of the cafeteria as quickly as they could, dodging past surprised onlookers and as soon as they were safely away, the boy said, "I'm sorry to barge in like that. My name's…"

"Luke Smith," Annie interjected, recognizing him from Sarah Jane's picture. "We've been looking for you."

"How did you know?" asked Luke, astonished, as they came to a stop around a corner to catch their breath.

"It's a long story," Annie shrugged as she peeked back in the direction they came from to be sure they weren't still being pursued. "Your mom and I have a mutual friend."

"You know the Doctor," Luke immediately guessed.

"OK, maybe not such a long story," Annie admitted. "My sister Lana is with us too. We should find her."

"If the Doctor's here, he's what we need," said Luke. "It's too dangerous to go look."

"If it's dangerous, then we especially need to find her," argued Annie. "I'm not leaving without her. Besides, what's wrong with dangerous?"

"The Doctor will be able to find her," said Luke confidently. "Especially if my mum's here to help."

"You are putting way too much faith in that bow tie wearing buffoon," said Annie in a huff. "I'll go find her myself if you won't come." Annie quickly walked away on her own, back in the direction of the lab.

Luke hesitated for a moment before shouting, "Wait!" and running to catch up with her.

"What was that thing anyway?" asked Annie as Luke jogged up alongside her.

"I don't know," admitted Luke. "But the other people working on this project have started acting weird. They've started saying things that didn't make sense. I didn't want to worry my mum until I was sure what was going on, and I'm still not. But if she's here, then I suppose it's too late for that."

"I suppose I can understand that," said Annie. "I didn't even give my mom a proper answer to where I was going."

"Well with the Doctor, you don't really know do you?" said Luke.

"No, I guess not," said Annie with a casual shrug.

"We should be careful," said Luke as they approached the building.

"Not a big fan of careful," said Annie. "Let's go."

* * *

"Oh, I should've never let them go in there," the Doctor fretted after the line went dead.

"It might not be too late," offered Sarah Jane. "We know who's behind it now."

"They're daleks, Sarah," said the Doctor harshly. "You know how serious this is."

"Oh, god, Luke's in there," exclaimed Sarah Jane frantically. "But still, you've beat them before," she said with hopeful confidence. "I have faith in you. If anyone can bring this to a happy ending, it's you."

"Not always," said the Doctor darkly. "Come along," he said grabbing Sarah Jane by the hand. "Time to see what we can do about this." He led her out of the TARDIS in search of his companions and her son.

* * *

Lana had dropped her phone in fear as the dalek approached her. She hadn't had time to see the full extent of information about them before she'd been found out, but the TARDIS streaming through her phone had told her they were creatures of hate that would kill without mercy. Responsible for countless deaths across the universe. But those were just words on a screen. What had Lana afraid right now was the fear in the Doctor's voice.

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER FOUND! THE INTRUDER MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Wait!" Lana screamed holding her hands up in surrender. "I'm here for the research project! Please don't hurt me!"

The approaching dalek stopped, its eyestalk looking her up and down. "SCANS INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE TRAVELLED IN TIME. YOU WILL BE NECESSARY."

"Necessary?" said Lana. "Necessary for what?"

Suddenly, the police officer from the front of the building burst in. "What seems to be the commotion…" he began but then stopped short upon seeing the dalek. "What the bloody hell is that thing?"

The dalek turned and glided toward the man. "YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" it said in a screeching metallic voice. It focused its weapon arm in his direction and fired upon him. Lana cringed as the green laser made contact with the man and he fell to the ground, now a dead weight. Any doubts Lana may have had about the severe danger she was in fled her mind at that moment. She was glad that Annie wasn't here with her and also hoped that she didn't come back before she could work out a plan.

She even found herself hoping that the Doctor would come, though she hated to admit it. She had no idea what to do, and it was the most helpless feeling in the universe. "You didn't need to kill him!" she protested.

"SILENCE!" the dalek commanded. "SILENCE!" the metallic pitch becoming more demanding.

"Why?" asked Lana, putting on her bravest voice. "You're not going to kill me. You said you need me. What for?"

"DALEKS DO NOT ANSWER HUMAN QUESTIONS."

"What's the machine for?" she asked, staring down the dalek squarely.

"IT IS NECESSARY," said the dalek. "NOW SILENCE! SILENCE!"

Lana took a deep breath and prepared to stand her ground while she waited. She began mentally assessing her situation. The dalek was keeping her alive because it needed a time traveler. The Doctor knew where she was and what was in the room with her. And that machine. She expected she could stall for time at least. The dalek had turned its back on her to do something to the machine. The door was blocked, but she thought there might be something she could do.

As discreetly as she could, she leaned down to pick up the phone she had dropped, not taking her eyes off the dalek in case it turned around. Doing her best to conceal her actions, she sent a text message to her sister. _Don't come back to the lab. Get the Doctor._

* * *

Annie got the text just as she and Luke reached the lab door. "It's from my sister," said Annie to Luke. "She says to get the Doctor."

"We've come this far," said Luke. "We should at least have a look."

The two of them peaked through the small window on the lab door to see Lana and the dalek. Lana had her eyes on her captor as it worked at the machine. "What is that thing?" whispered Annie, not expecting an answer.

"It's a dalek," said Luke. "My mum's petrified of them. Your sister's right, we need the Doctor." He gently took her hand and nudged her away. "She's alive for now, that's something."

The two of them left the building and headed back in the direction of the TARDIS. Annie hated leaving her sister there, but deferred to her sister's judgment. If even Lana thought they should get the Doctor, then that's what they needed to do.

* * *

The group found each other halfway between the lab and the TARDIS. Sarah Jane saw her son first. "Luke!" she cried out, running toward him.

"Mum!" he ran toward her and they met in a big hug. "Mum, it's the daleks!"

"I know," she said frantically.

"Annie, are you alright?" said the Doctor with deep concern as he pulled her into a hug.

"Geroff me," she said, pushing him away. "We have to go get Lana!"

"Yes, I believe that was next on the agenda," the Doctor agreed. "But I'm going to need you lot to go back to the TARDIS."

"No," yelled Annie. "I'm going with you!"

"Annie, listen to me," said the Doctor seriously. "The daleks are bad news. Very, very bad news. I can't keep you safe unless you are safely away. And I promise I will do everything I can to save your sister."

"If Lana isn't safe then it doesn't matter if I am," Annie insisted. "I'm going with you and you can't stop me."

"I need you in the TARDIS," said the Doctor. "I need someone there for my cunning plan to work."

"There's a plan?" said Sarah Jane, surprised.

"Of sorts," said the Doctor vaguely with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Well Luke and I can go," said Sarah Jane. "Just tell me what you need."

"Right," said the Doctor, worried and lost in thought. "Go back to the TARDIS and wait for my word." He turned to Annie, taking her by the hand. "Let's go get your sister."


	18. Scavenged Technology

**A/N: Thank you for my new review/favorite/follow! I really appreciate the support. **

When they got back to the lab, the Doctor pulled a remote control from his jacket pocket and handed it to Annie. "Take this, and wait in the corridor out of sight. If I say the word, press the button and run!"

"What does this do?" asked Annie.

"You'll see," said the Doctor, and he confidently strode through the door to face the dalek.

When the Doctor entered the room, Lana threw her pride aside, running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad to see you!" she said relieved as she buried her face into his tweed collar. The Doctor gently kissed her forehead then stepped forward to confront the dalek.

"We meet again," he said.

"WE HAVE NOT MET BEFORE!" said the dalek.

"Ah, that's right," said the Doctor. "Because you've forgotten me. The daleks' greatest enemy, and you've forgotten all about me."

"SCANS INDICATE YOU ARE A TIME LORD," screeched the dalek.

"Ah, yes, time lord," said the Doctor, taking another step forward and straightening his bow tie. "But don't you want to know what I'm doing here? I'd certainly love to know what you're doing here."

"RECORDS INDICATE THAT ALL TIME LORDS PERISHED IN THE TIME WAR," said the dalek.

"Exactly," said the Doctor. "I shouldn't be here. So why am I? And why are you here? Scavenging a university? How many of you are here?"

"I AM THE ONLY ONE HERE," said the dalek.

"Only one?" asked the Doctor. "How did you get here?"

"I FELL FROM THE TIME WAR," said the dalek. "YOU ARE A TIME LORD, AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS. YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED."

"Wait, you don't want to do that," said the Doctor quickly. "My friend has a detonation device and is just waiting to press the button and let this whole place blow."

"YOU WOULD ALSO PERISH," said the dalek.

"That's right," agreed the Doctor with a slightly threatening edge to his voice. "As you can imagine, I don't really want to do that, but don't test me because I will. Now what are you doing here with that machine? What's your plan?"

He sauntered over to the machine and began fiddling with the dials and scanning it with his sonic screwdriver. "YOU WILL CEASE!" demanded the dalek. "CEASE!"

"Doctor," said Lana, doing her best to hide the fear from her voice. "It said it needed a time traveler. That's why it didn't kill me."

"Ooh, now that is interesting," said the Doctor as he strode over to the dalek. "Why's that then? Obviously you'd have need of the temporal energy unique to the vortex, but why? What are you gonna use it for?"

"IT IS NECESSARY TO USE AS A SIGNAL," said the dalek.

"A signal for what?" asked the Doctor.

"TO RETRIEVE THE DALEK EMPIRE FROM WITHIN THE TIME WAR," said the dalek. "THE DALEKS SHALL BE VICTORIOUS!"

"That's impossible," said the Doctor. "It's time locked. Nothing can go in or out."

"THIS DEVICE MAKES IT POSSIBLE," said the dalek.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sounds of a struggle outside the door. "Doctor, what's that?" asked Lana concerned as she looked in the direction on the racket.

"Oh, this is not good," muttered the Doctor. "This is extra very not good."

Moments later, Annie was led into the room by Mark, now a dalek puppet, his now repaired eyestalk protruding from his forehead. "WHO IS THIS INTRUDER?" demanded the dalek. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

"Annie, are you alright?" Lana whispered to her sister.

"I could ask you the same thing," she muttered in return.

"It doesn't matter who she is," said the Doctor. "She has a detonation device. Show them, Annie."

"Right here, Doctor," said Annie waving the device with a smirk.

"YOU CALL YOURSELF DOCTOR," said the dalek. "DOCTOR WHO?"

"You'll never stop asking that," said the Doctor smugly.

"Doctor, sorry to interrupt," interjected Lana. "But do you have a plan for getting us out of here? Preferably one that doesn't involve getting us blown up? If so, do you mind filling us in?"

"Ah, yes, a plan…I was working on that," said the Doctor.

"Of course you don't have a plan," muttered Lana.

"YOU HAVE NO PLAN, DOCTOR," said the dalek. "THEN I SHALL BE VICTORIOUS!"

"I've still got this," said Annie boldly, holding up the detonation device. "Let us go, now!"

"I WILL NOT RELEASE YOU!" said the dalek. "YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THAT DEVICE WITHOUT HARMING YOURSELF. STALEMATE."

"Oh, yeah?" said Annie, threateningly. "Try me. Run!" She pressed the button of the device and Lana and Annie both sprinted to the door, but the Doctor did not move, and they weren't able to get past Mark the puppet. And then, nothing happened.

"What happened?" asked Lana, confused. "You said it was a detonation device. Did it malfunction?"

"No, it didn't malfunction," said the Doctor, taking the device from Annie. "There is no detonation. I lied. I was rather hoping that wouldn't come up quite yet."

"Your plan was to bluff your way out of here?" shrieked Lana. "That's rubbish."

"Well plan B, then," said Annie as she ran up to the dalek to punch it in the eyestalk. "That's for threatening my sister," she said. The she punched Mark the puppet in the eyestalk as well. "That's for being a robot creep."

"Now we run," said the Doctor, and the three of them ran out the door while Mark and the dalek were distracted. "Lana, I need your mobile," he yelled as they fled down the corridor.

"Here you go," she said frantically as she handed it off.

"Sarah Jane," said the Doctor urgently into the receiver once he had dialed. "I'm patching our coordinates through to the TARDIS. I need you to throw the wibbly lever and release the handbrake."

"Oh, so you'll let her drive," protested Annie as they ran. "But when I ask, no…"

"Well, if you'd gone back to the TARDIS like I'd told you, then you could've," argued the Doctor.

The dalek had recovered enough to pursue them and they could hear its threatening tones behind them. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

They reached the end of the hallway with nowhere to go. They were cornered. Lana and Annie cringed as the dalek approached them, but the Doctor remained confident. They could hear the familiar wheezing of the TARDIS engines as the time ship materialized around them. Just before the dalek faded from view, the Doctor pulled the detonation device from his pocket and pressed the button. The reverberating explosion hurled the TARDIS away from the building and its occupants were thrown in all directions as the Doctor quickly ran to the console to steer them to safety.

"You said there was no detonation," muttered Annie as they all caught their bearings.

"Ah, yes, about that," said the Doctor as he straightened his bow tie. "I lied. This device is isomorphic and can respond only to me."

"Then why did you even bother giving it to me?" said Annie annoyed.

"To keep you safely out of the way," said the Doctor. "And that worked for a little bit."

"What did you even ignite?" asked Lana somewhat shocked by the turn of events. "When could you have planted an explosive?"

"I placed it on the machine when I was examining it," said the Doctor.

"You found Luke then," said Lana, just noticing him. "That's good then. I'm Lana, by the way," she added in Luke's direction.

"Nice to meet you," he said with a grin.

They left the TARDIS to see that the Doctor had navigated them back to Sarah Jane's house on Bannerman Road. Sarah Jane turned to wrap the Doctor in a big hug. "Thank you so much…for everything."

The Doctor leaned in to gently kiss her cheek. "Until the next time."

Sarah Jane turned to Lana and Annie. "It was great meeting you," said Lana.

"Ditto," said Annie with a grin.

"And it was very nice meeting you," said Sarah Jane. "Have some faith in him and take care of yourselves."

* * *

Back inside, as the Doctor worked at the console to set the flight for their next destination. "Doctor," said Lana, ready to ask the questions that had been burning in her mind. "That machine…Father Mungo had it, and now this dalek. You said before it was scavenged. Did he scavenge it from the daleks?"

"Ah, no," said the Doctor. "The dalek scavenged it as well. The dalek was just clever enough to know how to use it better."

"If it's not dalek technology, then where did it come from?" she asked concerned.

"The technology is time lord," said the Doctor.


	19. Girls' Night

**A/N: Thank you so much for the new favorites/follows/reviews. The support really means a lot to me. **

"What do you mean time lord technology?" asked Lana nervously, an irrational part of her brain feeling as if the Doctor was confirming her nightmare in front of her.

The Doctor appeared not to notice Lana's concern. "Yes, time lord," he said dismissively, not looking up from the console.

"Well then you must know all about it," Lana pressed.

"Not any more than what I've told you," said the Doctor distractedly.

"Well then how do you know the technology is time lord?" Lana continued, her heart pounding at the revelation. "How is it even here? Your world was destroyed."

"I don't know how it got here," said the Doctor as he moved to the other side of the console, fiddling with instruments as he went. "A remnant falling through time…could be anything really. But it's definitely time lord. It has Gallifreyan writing on it."

"So if it's time lord, why don't you know more about it?" Lana said, not letting up.

"Do you know everything about all Earth technology?" said the Doctor pointedly.

"No, I suppose not," Lana admitted.

"Why are you so concerned about it?" asked the Doctor, suddenly shifting all his attention to her at once.

Lana swallowed a lump in her throat and attempted to play it off. "It's really weird to see it again," she said softly. She hoped he would drop it there. She certainly wasn't ready to tell the Doctor that he'd popped up in her oldest childhood nightmare along with this machine.

The Doctor looked at her intently, examining her for several long moments, the silence palpable in the air. "Right, of course," he said. "Well you should probably get to bed then."

Lana nodded and left the Doctor alone in the console room.

* * *

Lana hadn't told her sister about the strange return of the nightmare. Likewise, Annie hadn't told Lana about the strange dream she'd had with the mysterious woman. As close as the two of them were, neither one wanted the other one worried, so they kept their anxieties to themselves.

Meanwhile, Lana and Annie became accustomed to life on the TARDIS. There was a new adventure waiting for them every day, the Doctor's eccentricities making it all a game, even when they found themselves running for their lives. Annie was always having fun as they got into trouble at every turn and Lana marveled at how much there was to learn.

And when the adventure was over, the two of them found plenty of things to get up to around the TARDIS as they often drifted through deep space or the time vortex between destinations. It wasn't long before they found the karaoke bar, much to the Doctor's chagrin. The Doctor would often find the pair of them there, singing and being goofy together, or hanging about the TARDIS door, open to space as they gazed out while Annie smoked a cigarette.

"I told you no smoking on my TARDIS," said the Doctor sternly, the first time he found them there.

"I'm not smoking on the TARDIS," Annie argued, "I'm smoking in the doorway."

"You're polluting the atmosphere," he argued.

"There is no atmosphere," she pointed out. "We've been in space for days, I needed one." Eventually, the Doctor gave up and let her be.

Annie began to find conveniently located boxes of gadgetry whenever she was bored and she'd often find herself tinkering for hours in between destinations, until one day a workshop appeared across the hall from her room that hadn't been there before.

Lana would spend time in the library every night before bed, but found that her journey to get there each night became shorter and shorter until eventually she only needed to turn a corner, and often times she would find a crackling fire and a warm cup of hot cocoa waiting for her when she got there.

Lana continued to have nightmares, always featuring that machine. And Annie continued to dream about that strange woman, always telling her they were with the Doctor for a reason. But this was just a backdrop to everything else. Lana began to wonder how she ever thought she could've been satisfied as just some office manager and thought maybe it was a lucky thing that she'd been fired when she was. Annie wondered how she could've ever been satisfied settled down with Max. It still stung to think about how he'd hurt her, but the Doctor kept them busy enough, she didn't have much time to think about it.

Each time the TARDIS landed somewhere new, they excitedly looked to the Doctor one of them asking the question, "So where are we now?"

"And when?" the other would always echo behind, both of them ready for the Doctor's enthusiastic reply.

* * *

As the TARDIS came to a stop, Lana and Annie looked to the Doctor with their usual excitement. "Where are we?" asked Annie eagerly.

"And when?" added Lana with anticipation.

"Cardiff, Wales, present day," answered the Doctor.

"Why what's here?" asked Lana, eagerly.

"A rift in space and time," answered the Doctor.

"So we're going to investigate it?" asked Lana.

"No, the rift's been here for quite some time without causing trouble," answered the Doctor. "But it leaks temporal energy that the TARDIS can use. We'll just let her soak up the energy for about a day or so, and then it's right off to the next adventure."

"So, this is a pit stop?" asked Annie, slightly disappointed.

"Basically, yes," said the Doctor.

"Wait is this like that space time rift that was in that cemetery with the angels?" asked Lana curious.

"Just a bit, yes," said the Doctor.

"Well why didn't you fuel up when we were there?" asked Annie.

"I didn't need to then," the Doctor said defensively.

"Well why don't you go back there then?" added Lana. "Why Cardiff?"

"Were you really ready to go back and see your mum again so soon?" the Doctor pointed out.

"Good point," the pair of them groaned in unison.

"Well we're not going anywhere until tomorrow. What's there to do in Cardiff?" asked Lana.

"Other than the rift, Cardiff is a pretty normal Earth city," responded the Doctor. "There are shops and restaurants we can explore."

Annie looked over to her sister with a scheming smirk on her face. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Lana matched the smirk because she knew exactly what the other was thinking. In unison, they gleefully agreed, "Girls' night!"

* * *

The Doctor was not thrilled about their insistence on leaving him out of their evening activities, but eventually begrudgingly agreed. "I can just work on some repairs in the TARDIS," he said offhandedly.

"Oh, go out and have some fun yourself, you bow tie wearing buffoon!" admonished Annie. "It won't kill you to find some enjoyment without danger following you wherever you go."

With that, Lana and Annie retreated to the wardrobe to find outfits for the evening. When they returned to the console room sometime later, the Doctor's jaw dropped at what he saw. Lana wore a black miniskirt with a shimmery blue halter top. She had taken the extra time for makeup and had added some glitter to her loose hair. Annie wore a sequined red tank top and tight black pants. She had traded in her usual sneakers for red stiletto pumps. Since Lana had stuck with her usual ballet flats, it emphasized their height difference. Annie had pulled her thick curls back into a ponytail which drew attention to the pale creamy complexion of her shoulders.

"You can't go out like that," said the Doctor sternly.

"Just why the hell not?" Annie shot back, immediately on the defensive.

"Because you can't," said the Doctor. "Where did you even get clothes like that?"

"The wardrobe on your ship," responded Lana, calmly putting her hands on her hips. "Where else would we have gotten them?"

"There are NOT clothes like that in my TARDIS wardrobe," said the Doctor.

"Well not anymore," said Annie pointedly. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

"There are PEOPLE out there," said the Doctor.

"That's the idea," responded Lana calmly. "We certainly didn't get all dolled up for people NOT to see us. That just wouldn't make any sense."

"You're right, it doesn't make any sense," responded the Doctor. "Since people are NOT going to see you dressed like that and you are now going to change."

"I think we can handle ourselves," said Annie. "They're just people, Earth people, the kind we've interacted with our entire lives, not monsters."

"Wait a second," said Lana with a sudden grin spreading across her face. "Are you trying to say we look nice?"

The Doctor started sputtering something about how people couldn't be trusted. Lana clapped her hands onto his shoulders and looked him in the eye, continuing to grin. "We'll be fine." With that, the two of them walked confidently past the Doctor and out the TARDIS doors.

"Don't wait up," Annie said over her shoulder.


	20. Rock Paper Scissors

**A/N: I have had a huge spike in readership this past month and I really wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, reviewed, or even just taken the time to read this story. **

It wasn't long before Lana and Annie found a bar with some live music and dancing. Annie walked straight up to the first man she saw with Lana trailing behind her. "Hey, want to buy us a drink?" she asked with a wink. Lana thought her sister chose well as she cast an appraising look over the tall muscular blonde man.

The man was clearly thinking the same thing about Annie as he looked her over appreciatively. "I'm sorry," he said regretfully. "I'm here with my girlfriend." As if on cue, a thin blonde woman in a bustier top appeared at his side and dragged him away as she gave a menacing look back to Annie.

Lana laughed at her sister. "Well, so much for that one. Let's dance, we can find someone else to flirt with."

"Don't need him anyway if he'll look at me like that with his girlfriend right there," said Annie with a shrug.

After a few songs, Annie had found some new man to dance with and Lana sidled up to the bar for a break. "Well, hello," said a handsome dark haired man next to her. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?" he asked as he planted a kiss on the back of her hand.

"Lana Anderson," she responded a bit more breathily than she meant to.

"Nice to meet you, Lana Anderson," he responded with a smile that emphasized his dimpled chin.

"Captain, huh?" she flirted. "What of?"

"Oh, I have many skills," he said leaning in with a wink.

"I bet you do," she said, playing right into his innuendo.

At that point, Annie appeared at her side and Jack's gaze shifted to her. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said, kissing her hand as he had Lana's.

"This is my sister Annie," said Lana.

He flashed them both that winning smile, and said, "Let me buy you ladies a drink."

Jack flirted with them the rest of the night. He bought their drinks and danced with both of them and continued to smile which made Lana and Annie smile. When Jack excused himself to use the restroom, Annie only waited just long enough for him to be out of earshot before she turned to her sister and said, "OK, rock paper scissors to see who gets him." Her right hand was already held out to Lana in a fist.

"What do you mean, who gets him?" responded Lana. "What are we going to do, take him back to the TARDIS? I'm sure the Doctor would _love_ that."

"I'm sure he has a place," said Annie, ignoring her sister's sarcasm, her fist still outstretched. "I don't want to fight with you for him like we did that one time."

"Oh and where do we tell the Doctor the other one is?" Lana asked irritably. "This will not go well for us. No one gets him."

"Now that's just not fair," whined Annie. She motioned her outstretched fist in Lana's direction, still trying to convince her.

"Oh, god, here he comes," said Lana, looking past her sister.

Annie quickly uncurled her fist and put her hand back to her side. "Jack's back already? That was quick."

"No, not Jack," said Lana, still looking past her. "The Doctor."

Annie turned around and followed her sister's gaze. "Oh my god, is he singing?"

"He hates it when we sing," said Lana, not taking her eyes off the time lord who was, in fact singing.

As he came closer, they could hear his raised voice carrying over the crowd. "It's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the front. Put your hands on your hips, and then shake your bum! And then the TARDIS thrust will really drive you insane! Let's do the time warp again!"

"Is he…?" asked Annie.

"Yep, he's drunk," answered Lana as the pair stared transfixed at the approaching inebriated time lord.

Just when he was within a few feet of them, he caught sight of them and stumbled straight into a bar stool. Lana and Annie swooped in on either side of him and caught him before he planted his face to the floor. His expression brightened at the sight of them. "I love you guys," he slurred.

They looked at each other over the Doctor's head. "I think girls' night is over," said Lana, taking charge. "We should get him back to the TARDIS."

Annie agreed with an exasperated sigh. "OK. We can make him pay for this later."

"Naturally," Lana agreed. "Why don't you start to coax him outside? I'll tell Jack we're leaving."

Annie didn't worry about her sister getting an extra flirt in with Jack, because she knew that for Lana practicality would always come before a flirt. And Lana knew that Annie was the more capable of the two of getting the Doctor out of the bar.

Lana approached Jack when he returned and said, "I'm sorry, we were having a great time with you, but our friend's a little drunk. We need to get him back."

"Oh, you have a friend?" he asked, with an unmistakably hopeful lift in his voice. "Well where are you staying? I can at least make sure you get there safe."

"Oh, you don't miss a trick, do you?" Lana responded, easily reading between the lines of his words. "But really, it's probably best if we handle this."

At that point, the Doctor stumbled quickly over to Lana and Jack, having apparently broke free from Annie's supervision. "Jack!" he yelled out far louder than necessary, as Lana neatly caught him again before he fell to the ground.

"Shh, Doctor," Lana tried to sooth him and get him to stop making such a scene. "It's time to go." Giving an apologetic look to Jack, she said, "I'm sorry about this."

"Doctor?" asked Jack surprised.

"Yeah, our friend's a doctor," explained Lana.

"I'm the Doctor and the Oncoming Storm," the Doctor slurred. "And Jack is my buddy."

Jack casually leaned in so only Lana would hear him. "So where is the TARDIS parked?" he asked with a playful smirk on his face.

Lana looked back and forth between the two men with a stunned expression, taking in what she had just heard. "You know each other then?" Jack nodded, grinning and chuckling to himself. "OK then, yes you can help us get him back," she said with an air of authority taking charge.

Jack and Lana each put an arm around the Doctor and exited the bar. They found Annie outside, leaning against the building and casually smoking a cigarette. "I thought you were getting rid of him," she said with a nod toward Jack.

"Turns out he knows the Doctor," Lana responded calmly. "I thought you were going to keep an eye on him," she said with her head tilted at the Doctor.

"He wandered off," she said with an exhale of smoke. "That bow tie wearing buffoon is a big ol' hypocrite. I couldn't chase him back in; this bar is non-smoking."

"So you leave me hanging with him?" Lana asked indignantly.

"He's cutting our girls' night short," said Annie, maintaining her calm. "I needed my cigarette. Although," she added with a look in Jack's direction, "it might not be a total loss." She leaned in to Lana to whisper in her ear. "One last chance for rock paper scissors."

"I think there are more pressing matters at hand," said Lana, giving her sister a stern look.

The group walked back toward the TARDIS, alternately supporting the Doctor as he staggered and babbled on excitedly to Jack about past adventures. "Do you remember when a Slitheen was running this town?"

"Of course I remember," said Jack with a grin. "That was a long time ago. It's good to see you Doctor. Oh!" He caught the Doctor as he swayed in Jack's direction. "You know I've been to bars all across the universe, and I had to come back to Cardiff to see a drunken time lord." That comment made Lana and Annie laugh.

"What's so funny?" asked the Doctor, leaning onto Annie and running his fingers through Jack's hair.

"You are," said Lana and Annie in unison.

"How many times do I have to tell you to quit doing that?" slurred the Doctor.

They reached the TARDIS and the group stepped inside. By now the Doctor was leaning on Lana's shoulder again. "OK, Doctor," she murmured in a soothing voice. "Let's get you to bed. Where is your bedroom by the way?" she asked as the thought suddenly occurred to her. "I don't think I've ever seen it."

"I don't want to go to bed!" yelled the Doctor as he tried to stagger toward the center console, but Lana held him tightly with her arm around his shoulder. "Jack's here!" he insisted. "We should have an adventure!"

"I think adventures will have to wait for morning," said Lana firmly while Annie and Jack chuckled at the scene. "Now tell me where your bedroom is."

"I wouldn't mind knowing that bit of information myself," added Jack with a smirk.

Lana ignored Jack's comments and continued to focus on the Doctor. "You're going to have to tell me," she said with a slight threatening edge to her voice, "otherwise I'm throwing you in the swimming pool."

"Oh, but that's a great idea!" slurred the Doctor excitedly. "We should all go swimming!" He took off his jacket and discarded it on the floor without looking to see where it landed and started loosening his bow tie.

"I like where this is going," said Jack with a mischievous grin.

"You are not helping," Lana accused, shooting a menacing glare in his direction. "Hey, look at me," she said to the Doctor, gently putting her hand to his chin and guiding him to do so. "Who's my favorite time lord?" A goofy grin spread across the Doctor's face. "Let's get you to bed, huh?" She started gently nudging him away from the console room. When she thought she might successfully get him to the corridor she pointed an authoritative finger back at Jack. "You don't go anywhere! I have questions!" Then she disappeared around the corner leaving Jack and Annie alone.

"He's redecorated," Jack observed casually.

"So you used to travel with him I take it?" Annie asked curiously.

"Oh yeah," said Jack with a grin. "The Doctor and I go way back."

"Well I'm sure Lana plans to thoroughly interrogate you about that so I won't make you tell your story twice," said Annie. "While we wait, care for a dance?" She casually pressed a button on the console to play some slow music.

Jack gave an exaggerated bow in response and held out his hand. He pulled her in close. They didn't talk anymore; they just let their bodies meld into each other as they danced. Annie realized that she hadn't felt this good about herself since before her wedding was cancelled. She still hadn't let the full impact of Max's betrayal sink in. She knew this was just a bit of fun with Jack, but she didn't care. When he gently ran his fingers down the side of her face and traced the line of her jaw she focused on how nice it felt. When he leaned in to kiss her, she thoroughly kissed him back.


	21. Payback

**A/N: Thank you for the new reviews and favorites this week. **

Lana finally got the Doctor to lead her to his bedroom. "Here we are, Doctor." She continued to speak to him in a soothing voice. Being an older sister, she had always had a bit of a natural maternal instinct, and her general experience was that most drunks were very much like overgrown children.

"Lana," he said, somehow slurring her name into five syllables.

"Yes, Doctor?" she said, still soothing.

"Sing for me?"

"I thought you didn't like it when we sing," she said with a hint of amusement.

"I like it when you sing," he insisted.

"I'm going to remember that," she said. "If I sing, will you promise to go to sleep?" The Doctor gave a wobbly nod in agreement. Lana could tell clearly that the Doctor would likely pass out at any moment, so she chose something soft and repeatable to sing. "If you're lost, you can look and you will find me, time after time; if you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting, time after time." She repeated the soft chorus while she gently coaxed the Doctor to lie down and she took off his shoes for him and set them at the foot of the bed. As she pulled a blanket over him, she saw that his eyes were closed and his breathing had slowed to a relaxed restful pace. She removed the bow tie which was hanging at a limp strange angle and set it on a bedside table then unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. She hoped it was enough that he wouldn't strangle himself if he rolled over wrong while he slept. She thought he looked rather peaceful as he lay there and she realized that she had developed a certain feeling of affection for this strange alien man she found herself traveling with. She gently brushed a stray wisp of hair that had flopped over face and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Good night, Doctor," she whispered, and then left him to his rest.

* * *

Lana returned to the console room to find Jack and her sister kissing passionately and also having apparently suspended their need to breathe. She stood there for a moment waiting for the couple to notice her and when it became evident that they weren't going to, she cleared her throat loudly. The pair stopped kissing and looked in Lana's direction, but didn't pull away from each other. "Now I know for a fact that there are a number of private rooms in here, I've seen them" she said with a raised eyebrow. "You have, too," she added with a nod toward her sister. "And I suspect that you have as well?" she added the last with a questioning glance in Jack's direction.

Annie took that as her cue to pull slightly away from Jack. "I told you she was going to interrogate you," she said to Jack.

"So you did," said Jack with an amused grin that seemed to never leave his handsome face. He took a seat and looked completely at home. "Well then, Lana Anderson, what would you like to know?"

"How did you meet the Doctor?" she asked without preamble.

"I was a conman and a coward, and then we stopped a bomb together," he answered. "I traveled with him for awhile. Like you do now I assume."

"That sounds like an incredibly simplistic answer," Lana accused.

"That's because it is," Jack answered. "But I think you know that nothing with the Doctor is that simple."

"So you traveled with him for awhile, and then when you were done he just dropped you back home in Cardiff?" Lana asked.

"Well, not the first time," Jack said with a casual shrug. "And I'm not originally from here; it's just where I live now."

"The first time?" said Lana. "And if you're not from here then where are you from?"

Jack ignored the first part of the question and just went for the second. "I'm from the Boeshane Peninsula. 51st century."

"So he picked you up in 51st century wherever that is, and he dropped you off here?"

"No, he picked me up in London in 1941," he answered, clearly amused that his answers were only raising more questions.

"Wow, you get around almost as much as he does," said Lana.

"Can we move this along?" asked Annie impatiently. "I was in the middle of something, and as you've pointed out, there are a number of private rooms in here." She looked meaningfully at Jack.

"Actually, as appealing as that sounds," said Jack returning Annie's meaningful gaze, "I should probably go. I don't think the Doctor will be happy to see me in the morning under these circumstances."

"Well you don't have to stay all night," said Annie. "There's hours before morning."

"Well in that case," said Jack with a grin, "I still think a swim sounds like an excellent idea. What do you say Lana? We could all have a nice skinny dip and you can keep interrogating me?" He winked in her direction.

Lana raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not going to skinny dip with you while my sister is present."

"I'll have to arrange some time for you later then," he answered.

Before she could respond to this, the TARDIS abruptly went into motion, the three of them having to hold onto the nearest railing to keep from falling over.

The TARDIS came to a stop and the three gradually got their bearings. "What just happened?" asked Annie. "It's like she flew herself."

"She probably did," said Jack.

"Where do you think we are?" said Annie.

Lana was the closest to the monitor. "It looks like a space ship. But it looks abandoned; that's weird."

"We should go get the Doctor," said Annie.

Lana raised a skeptical eyebrow at her sister. "I'm sure he's still drunk. And once that wears off he'll probably have a wicked hangover."

"Exactly," said Annie with a self-satisfied smirk. "Payback."

Jack laughed at that. "You're going to wake him as payback for cutting your girls' night short?"

"And for making us fight evil in the morning," Lana added in. "Long story," she said, seeing Jack's questioning glance.

Lana giggled to herself as she rounded the corner about to go rouse the Doctor. Annie was right. It would serve him right for the morning incident alone. But before she made it to the corridor, the Doctor appeared and ran smack into her.

"Oof," the Doctor let out a sound and gently grabbed Lana's arm to steady her. "Did I just feel the TARDIS land? How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with her?" He threw an accusing glare in Annie's direction. His hair was bedraggled and he hadn't replaced his bow tie or his shoes, the top two buttons of his shirt were still unbuttoned and the shirt was now half untucked. Overall, he looked a bit disheveled, but he was acting like his normal self.

"Shouldn't you still be drunk?" asked Annie suspiciously.

"I'm a time lord, we metabolize alcohol quickly," he responded.

"I put you to bed 20 minutes ago," said Lana in disbelief.

"Very quickly," the Doctor added in.

"How much did you drink to get that drunk?" asked Annie, absolutely flabbergasted.

"I'm not sure," responded the Doctor. "Made some new mates in a pub and got challenged to a drinking competition. Don't remember much after that."

"And now you're just fine?" asked Lana, completely shocked.

"Yep, just fine," said the Doctor. "Never better, in fact."

"I hate you," said Lana and Annie in unison.

"No you don't," said the Doctor with a confident grin. At this, Jack started laughing at the scene and the Doctor noticed him for the first time since he had woken up. "Jack?" He sounded just as shocked to see the other man and Lana and Annie had been at his sobriety. "What are you doing here? You know this is what I meant by PEOPLE," he said rounding on his companions and then looking them up and down. "And you're still dressed like that!"

"Of course we are," said Lana, indignantly. "Do you remember the part where I said we've only been back for 20 minutes? And you were quite a handful, I'm not sure we could've gotten you back here without Jack's help."

"And he doesn't seem to mind what we're wearing," added Annie throwing hungry glances toward Jack.

"Well that's where you're wrong," Jack interjected. "I would love to see you out of those clothes."

"Do you see what I mean?" said the Doctor. "I let you out on your own and you bring him back to my ship and then fly off in it, and you could've just listened to me and changed your clothes."

"We didn't fly off, the TARDIS flew herself," Lana said. "We appear to be on some sort of abandoned space ship."

"Now that is unusual," said the Doctor, looking at the monitor, with excited curiosity beginning to spread across his face. "We should investigate." He quickly ran off down the corridor and reappeared a minute later in a clean shirt and bow tie. "Right then, let's go!"

* * *

Once outside the TARDIS, the Doctor did a quick scan of the room with the sonic screwdriver. "32nd century technology. No signs of life," he said. "But why not?" He continued to scan around the room for anything that would give him a clue. "Right then, let's split up and look around. Jack, you and Annie can look that way and Lana can come with me."

"No, I'll go with Jack," Lana interjected. "If you leave those two alone, they'll just end up making out somewhere and won't find anything out."

The Doctor looked at her quizzically. "Have you met Jack before?"

"No, but I know my sister," she said. Annie huffed a bit at that but the look on her face said that Lana's assessment was accurate.

"Fine then," said the Doctor. "Lana, go with Jack and Annie come with me. Try not to get into any trouble."

"With you around?" said Annie. "I think that's impossible."

"Not impossible, just improbable," said the Doctor. "So give it a try, eh?" And with that, the group split off into their respective directions.


	22. Impulse

**A/N: Thank you for the favorites/follows/reviews. **

Annie and the Doctor made their way down a corridor, the Doctor slightly ahead and scanning around with his sonic screwdriver. "What do you think happened to everyone?" asked Annie.

"Anything could have happened," said the Doctor. "One thing's for sure. The TARDIS brought us here for a reason. It takes something powerful to draw the TARDIS away, especially from a complete stop. I mean to find out what that something is." They entered into what appeared to be the main bridge. The Doctor moved immediately toward a computer and started scanning it with the screwdriver. Annie fanned out in the other direction to see if she could notice anything else.

"Doctor?" she beckoned him over. She had found the bodies of two men in what appeared to be uniform jackets. One held a gun and the other a knife and they both had dried bloodstains surrounding them on the floor and around their midsections. "They've killed each other."

The Doctor grimaced at the men. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he said to them. "I have a feeling that whatever brought us here is responsible for their deaths."

"But clearly they've killed each other," argued Annie. "Weapons in hand…if anybody knows what a fight gone wrong looks like it's me. They let their anger get the best of them."

"No I don't think that's it," said the Doctor. "I was just having a look at the ship's log…no report of discord in the crew. Whatever came over them came over them quick. So what was it?"

* * *

In a different area of the ship, Lana and Jack were looking around for anything of note. Lana had retrieved two flashlights from her bag and handed one to Jack. "You know I thought we were having a pretty good time," said Jack, "and now you're all business."

Lana didn't pause in her stride, continuing to look for anything unusual and fanning her flashlight from one side of the corridor to the other. "I'm all for a good flirt, Jack, but there's a time and a place," Lana said matter-of-factly. Jack chuckled at that. "Why's that funny?" she asked.

"You sound like the Doctor," answered Jack.

"Yeah, well, occasionally he knows what he's talking about," said Lana, dismissively.

"Occasionally?" said Jack. "You sound like you don't completely trust him."

"Of course I don't," said Lana, as if it were obvious. "I don't trust people in general and doctors in particular. Never trust a doctor."

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

"Nope," answered Lana. "No offense."

Jack chuckled. "None taken."

They entered into what appeared to be a medical bay. Lana privately shuddered, as the room looked chillingly like the one from her childhood nightmares, which she'd been having with increasing frequency. But there was no sign of the machine and she took that as a small comfort. The two of them began looking around. Lana was opening various metal cabinets to see what was inside. She opened one, finding a chilled body. _Great,_ she thought, _not a medical bay, a morgue. That's cheery._ But no sooner did she have that typically cynical thought before a strange sensation came over her and she felt…different. She turned around to look at Jack whose back was turned to her. She looked up and down his body appreciatively, letting her eyes linger on his backside until he turned around.

"Why are you smiling like that?" asked Jack. "Did you find something?" Lana didn't answer or think; she just acted. She strode purposefully toward Jack and kissed him hungrily. He eagerly reciprocated the kiss and entwined his fingers in her hair. She resolutely and decisively grabbed his firm butt to pull him in closer. She pulled away just long enough to frantically remove her blue party halter, leaving her in just her black bra and miniskirt and leaned back in and began lightly nibbling at his neck. She didn't think about any of her actions, she only acted.

"Not that I'm complaining," Jack said amused, his warm breath on her ear, "but you are quite the little hypocrite. A time and a place you say." He chuckled to himself.

That comment sparked a sudden, quick anger in her and she wanted to hurt him. Her hand twitched to the counter beside them, and Lana realized that she was not in control of herself. Something was causing her to act without thinking. She tried to fight it, but her hand was still searching the counter for something that could pass as a weapon. She quickly put up a mental barrier, hoping to keep hold of herself, but it was too late for Jack and he didn't even know it. She had found a surgical scalpel and plunged it deep into his stomach. Consumed by anger, she threw a rolling table full of instruments onto its side before running out the door and leaving Jack for dead.

* * *

Annie and the Doctor were still contemplating the bodies they had found when they heard the crash. They both went running toward the sound, the Doctor slightly ahead with his sonic screwdriver out and at the ready. They reached the medical bay and could see the room in chaos. Tables were overturned and instruments were scattered across the floor. Jack was lying in a thick pool of blood with the scalpel sticking out of his side. "Oh, my god, he's dead," Annie said, looking at him in horror.

"Just stay back," said the Doctor, using his arms to shield her.

After a moment, Jack coughed and sat up. He winced in pain, and pulled the scalpel out of his side. "But...but you were just dead," Annie said in disbelief.

"Oh, be fair to the man," the Doctor scolded. "That's really rude you know."

"Thanks, Doc...appreciate the support," he said with a nod. "I can't die," said Jack, simply to Annie. "Long story."

Annie's eyes wandered to the floor next to Jack and she saw Lana's shirt and bag carelessly discarded in the mess. She leaned over to pick up the items and said, "Where is my sister?"

"I don't know," said Jack with a shrug. "I think she ran off."

"What did all this?" asked the Doctor.

"She did," said Jack.

"What do you mean she did this?" Annie demanded. "You can't mean Lana."

"I do mean Lana," said Jack evenly.

"I hope this isn't what you meant by 'Don't piss her off,' because if it is, we may need to have a serious talk," said the Doctor.

"No," said Annie. "She wouldn't do this, something's wrong with her. Did you see which way she went?"

"No, I didn't see," said Jack.

"What do you mean you didn't see?" screamed Annie. "Obviously there is something wrong with my sister, and you didn't pay attention to which way she went!"

"I was busy dealing with the fact that she stabbed me!" Jack yelled back.

That was it. Annie punched him in the face. "My sister does not just go around stabbing people! There is something wrong with her, and you better start giving some helpful answers quick!"

Jack winced in pain and gingerly rubbed his jaw. "These two seem a little violent for your taste, Doctor."

"You caught them on an off day," said the Doctor. "Well, maybe not for Annie. I suppose she is a bit violent. Although in her defense, I can see how you've gotten her a bit cross. But definitely an off day for Lana. Question is what's putting her off? Maybe it might help if you told us the whole story?"

"We were just looking around for anything suspicious," said Jack, "and then suddenly she kissed me. I mean, she was all over me. Then I made a joke about how she'd been so serious about there being a time and a place, and she stabbed me, trashed the room, then she ran off."

"She kissed you then she stabbed you?" said Annie.

"I guess I just had that effect on her," Jack shrugged.

* * *

It wasn't hard for them to find Lana. The corridor had several freshly ripped power cords with sparks flashing. They found her in a storage room throwing things out of cupboards.

"See?" said Jack. "She just went off the deep end." Lana heard his voice and turned abruptly to throw a metal canister at his head. He ducked only just in time.

The Doctor tried talking to her. "I don't know who you are, but I'd like to be able to help you. Can you let me speak to Lana please?" She threw a box at him and the Doctor ducked out of the way.

"Lana," pleaded Annie desperately. "What's happened to you?" A flicker of recognition crossed Lana's face. Then suddenly, her expression changed and Lana showed through the face, but her body was rigid and her hands shook as she gripped a railing so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Annie, I'm in here," her voice came out strangled and distressed. "I don't have control," she said. "I don't know what it is, but I don't have control. But it's only on the surface. I'm blocking what I can. It only knows what we've told the Doctor. I'm going to lose control. You need to run. I could hurt you. Just run!"

Then Lana lost control again and started advancing on the others with a large piece of pipe she had picked up from the debris. "Well you heard her," said the Doctor. "Run!"

Annie was reluctant to go, but the Doctor grabbed her hand and forced her along. When the three turned the corner back into the medical bay, they ducked behind a gurney before Lana reached the room behind them and continued through to the next corridor passing them completely. "What is wrong with my sister?" Annie demanded through clenched teeth. In an effort to keep quiet, her voice came out in a low, gutteral growl.

"Something is possessing her," whispered the Doctor. "Something that is feeding on anger I think. I'm pretty sure that's what happened to those unfortunate blokes we saw in the console room. Probably everyone else on this ship as well."

"Well why doesn't it have me?" Annie asked, upset. "I get angry much more easily than she does."

"But that's just the point," said the Doctor. "You even said it yourself. You get angry, you punch someone in the face and your anger is released. You don't hold any of it in. Your sister gets angry; she takes a deep breath and tries to approach the situation logically. How much anger is she swallowing inside her? It must be feasting."

"But she kissed me before she got mad," pointed out Jack. "That wasn't angry."

"Well I'm not so sure you didn't have something to do with that," said the Doctor. "It is _you_, after all."

"What do we do?" asked Annie.

"Well I'm still thinking about that," said the Doctor. "If I can subdue her somehow, I might be able to talk to the entity and figure it out."

Lana came back into the medical bay, heaving deep angry breaths. She kicked at the scattered debris on the floor and hurled a table out of her way. "You need her subdued?" said Jack. "I'll take care of it." He pulled a tube of lip balm from his pocket and applied it then emerged from the hiding spot and walked purposefully toward Lana.

"So after their first kiss, she stabs him, and now he's going back in for more?" said Annie.

The Doctor smirked at that. "I'd say your sister must be an amazing kisser, but I've known Jack a long time. He's always that recklessly seeking a snog."

Lana spotted Jack approaching her and she tried to throw something at him again which he dodged. He reached her and pulled her into an embrace before she could protest. Then he dipped her into a deep kiss and her whole body went limp and it became apparent that he had dipped her in that fashion so he could catch her. He picked her up and carried her to a gurney and yelled, "Get me something to restrain her with, quickly!"

"What's wrong with her now?" asked Annie, worry written plainly across her face.

"I've temporarily paralyzed her," said Jack.

"You're trying to tell me that you paralyzed her with your kiss?" Annie shouted. "I kissed you. It was good, but not that good!"

"Paralyzing lip gloss," he said, holding up the tube he had applied.

"I've heard of a kiss making you go weak in the knees, but that is something else!" said Annie. "But if she's paralyzed why do we need to restrain her?"

"Because," said the Doctor who was already searching the room for restraints, "if she's not given an antidote quickly, it'll kill her! You shouldn't have done that, Jack! It's too dangerous!"

"I won't let her die!" Jack defended himself. "You said you needed her subdued and I've done that."

Annie started looking through Lana's bag. Her sister always had whatever they needed in there; surely she would now, too. After a moment, Annie retrieved a pair of handcuffs. "Got it!"

The Doctor took the handcuffs and gently moved Lana so she was leaning against a support beam and cuffed her hands around the beam behind her back. While he did this, Jack was applying a second tube of lip gloss. "Do you solve every problem by kissing?" asked Annie in an annoyed tone.

"No," said Jack with a wink. "But as many as I can." With that, he leaned down to Lana's limp form and lifted her chin into another kiss which immediately brought anger back to her face. She squirmed around, and once she realized she was restrained, she inflicted violence in the only way left to her. She bit Jack's lip as hard as she could. "Ow!" Jack exclaimed as he pulled away. "Well she's back!"

"No, she's not," said Annie darkly. "That is not my sister."

"No," the Doctor agreed grabbing Annie's shoulder. He looked her in the eye and said, "But she is in there. Your sister is in there and we're going to get her back." Annie took a deep breath and nodded. Usually she would have deferred to Lana about whether or not to take his word, but she couldn't. And she didn't know what else to do. Either the Doctor would bring her sister back from whatever possessed her body or Annie would punch him and Jack and anyone else who she thought was responsible.

The Doctor leaned over Lana and put his hands gently to her temples and closed his eyes. "Oh, good girl, Lana. You are clever."

"What is it?" asked Annie softly.

"She's hiding behind a brick wall, a sort of mental barrier," he explained. "That's what she meant when she said it was only on the surface. Not everyone would be clever enough to know to do that."

"Can you bring the wall down?" asked Jack. "Would that bring her out?"

"I can bring the wall down, but that would let whatever this is in," said the Doctor. "I might not be able to bring her back if it gets to the rest of her mind." The Doctor continued to focus on Lana for a moment until her head fell limp.

"Is she OK?" Annie asked, worried.

"She's fine," said the Doctor. "I promise." He looked at Lana and said, "I request parley under Article 15 of the Shadow Proclamation."

Lana slowly raised her head while she let out a slow, sinister laugh. "I don't care about proclamations." The voice was raspy and didn't belong to Lana.

"What do you care about?" asked the Doctor, calmly. The entity continued to laugh. "Come now," the Doctor continued. "I'm offering you a chance to talk. Considering that you're possessing a very good friend of mine, I think I'm being quite generous." The entity laughed even harder. "Maybe we should start with something simple. What's your name?"

"I am the Impulse," it said in that same raspy voice.

"What do you want?" asked the Doctor.

"I want to take control," said the Impulse.

"Oh, of course," said the Doctor. "Not anger, control. You're making her act on every impulse."

Annie got angry and yelled at the entity. "Get out of my sister! Take me! I'm more impulsive than she ever was!"

"You?" said the entity with disgust, spitting on the floor. "You have no control. This one follows you around and controls for you."

"What does that mean?" asked Annie.

"You act on impulse, and your sister acts as the voice of reason," said the Doctor quickly. "Am I right?"

The entity was laughing again, a slow and sinister sound escaping through Lana's mouth, but not her voice. "She holds back so much," said the entity. "She would have beaten that Max black and blue." The entity giggled maliciously and gave a lustful gaze in Jack's direction. "She would've done naughty things to you. In fact, she still would. I would've kept her going if you hadn't insulted her. What do you say, Jacky boy? Give us another kiss."

"Don't do it," said the Doctor in a warning tone.

"I wasn't going to," said Jack.

"Well I can never be sure with you," said the Doctor. He addressed the entity once more. "What happened to the rest of the people on this ship?"

The entity laughed maniacally. "I only made them do what they wanted. It's so easy when you don't think of the consequences. And really, they're so inconsequential."

"Where do you come from?" asked the Doctor.

"I don't come from anywhere," said the entity. "I can exist everywhere. I make Sontarans run from the battlefield and housewives murder their infants."

"What are you doing here?" asked the Doctor.

"They came upon me floating through an asteroid belt," the entity said with a sinister giggle. "I hadn't seen life for a millennium or so. It only took one power hungry man's secret desires to kill the whole crew. It was delicious!" She licked her lips in a way that would've been seductive in different circumstances.

With that, the Doctor seemed to have made up his mind about something. He started walking out of the room and said, "You two stay here and keep an eye on her!"

"Where are you going?" Annie yelled after him.

"Back to the TARDIS to get something," said the Doctor. "I won't be long."

"I'm coming with you," said Annie following him.

"No," said the Doctor. "Your sister needs you."

"I'm useless just watching her like this," Annie protested.

"It's OK, Doctor," Jack piped in. "I can watch her. The worst thing she can do is kill me...again."

"Alright, come along, then," said the Doctor, motioning her along with a gentle touch to her arm.


	23. Data Box

Once back to the TARDIS, the Doctor quickly ran down the stairs to the area where he typically did repairs. He started rummaging through a box, looking for something. "What are you looking for?" Annie asked. "Maybe I can help."

"A data box," said the Doctor, continuing to rummage. "If you want, you can look over there," he added pointing behind him in a vague direction. "It's black and rectangular, about the size of a car battery." Annie began to look through another box. She made mental note of the number of gadgets she discarded, meaning to investigate next time she was bored and wanting to tinker.

"Is this is?" Annie asked, holding up a box that matched the Doctor's description.

The Doctor ran over and said, "Yes, that's it, you beauty!" He pulsated the sonic screwdriver around the edges and then popped the top off. "Now we just need to make some modifications. This is designed to hold computerized data, but if we can convert it to recognize the electrical readings of synaptic responses, we can use it to contain the entity."

"Can you repeat that in English, please?" said Annie.

"We need it to recognize brain waves, and then we can trap the Impulse inside," said the Doctor.

"Well why didn't you just say so?" said Annie irritably. She immediately grabbed some parts from the box she had just been rummaging through and began helping the Doctor, finally feeling useful in this situation.

* * *

"Oh, Jack," said the entity in a sing song tone trying to gain attention. Jack continued to watch Lana, but didn't respond. "Come on, Jack, I'm so vulnerable right now. It would be so easy to have a bit of fun."

"You don't sound vulnerable," said Jack sternly.

"Oh, but you have us all tied up," she said with a light tug at her restraints. "And this skirt would give such easy access. She likes this, you know." The entity spoke through Lana with mocking lust.

"I don't plan on taking advantage of her," said Jack, solid in his position.

"You wouldn't be," said the Impulse. "I can't make her do anything she doesn't want to. And she wants you, Jacky boy. Her desire has been rolling around right up on the surface since the moment you introduced yourself. You kissed her hand and sent shivers down her spine." Her body shimmied in illustration.

"I just met Lana, but before you took over she told me that there is a time and a place," said Jack. "That tells me that the real Lana may want me, but would think twice." At that point, Annie and the Doctor returned carrying a black box with them. "Good, you're back!" said Jack. "She was trying to proposition me."

"That's not usually a problem for you, Jack," said the Doctor.

"Well I prefer to be propositioned by someone in their right mind," said Jack.

"Captain Jack Harkness has boundaries," the Doctor said, almost to himself. "Who knew?"

"Just tell me you have a plan," said Jack, exasperated.

"As a matter of fact, I do," said the Doctor obviously pleased with himself. "We're going to draw the Impulse out into this." He proudly presented the newly modified data box.

"How are you going to do that?" asked Jack.

"Well that's where Annie comes in," said the Doctor. "She is going to get Lana to push it out."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa wait," said Annie. "You didn't say anything about that before."

"You didn't ask," said the Doctor with a shrug.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Annie's voice was rising slightly back toward panic stages. "If Lana could just push the entity out, wouldn't she have already done that?"

"Well before, it would've just latched onto someone else," said the Doctor. "Either that, or just gone right back into her. The Impulse needs somewhere to go. That's why she had to put up a mental barrier to block it from her deeper thoughts. But once she's behind the barrier, she can't control the Impulse to push it out anymore. She needs to be triggered by something behind that barrier to get her control back."

"How am I supposed to do that?" asked Annie. "Lana's the one who understands how people think. I understand gadgets and machines, not people."

"Ah, but you're the only one who can help," said the Doctor. "She gave us a hint. She said, 'it only knows what the Doctor knows.' That means that something she hasn't told me will let her push it out. I don't need you to know people; I just need you to know your sister."

The entity was laughing again. "I'm not coming out," it said. "I will consume her. And I will take all of you along the way."

The Doctor ignored the entity and put a hand on Annie's shoulder. "You can do this."

Annie realized that she knew exactly what was behind that barrier that could bring back her sister. She leaned in to Lana's ear and whispered a single word, inaudible to Jack or the Doctor. "Adam," she breathed. With that, Lana arched her back and screamed violently. The Doctor quickly fiddled with some knobs and buttons on the data box, and it made sounds of radio frequency and digital readings went up and down.

Just as suddenly, Lana's body relaxed and she looked up. Her expression had changed and was no longer malicious. She was panting for breath like she'd just run a marathon. She looked around at the scene, assessing the situation. "Did I hurt anybody?" she asked.

"You stabbed Jack, but it turns out he can't die, so it's not a big deal," said Annie, slightly subdued.

"Hey!" said Jack. "Just because I can't die does not mean that it's not a big deal to stab me. That hurt like hell!"

Lana shifted her gaze to the destruction in the room. "Did I break anything important?" Everyone shook their heads.

"Is that really you?" asked Annie and Lana gave a quick and shaky nod. Annie threw her arms around her sister. Lana made a move to hug her back and then noticed the handcuffs.

"Are these my handcuffs?"

"Yes," said the Doctor. "I wanted to ask you since your back, why you carry handcuffs in your bag?"

"In case someone buys me dinner," she said matter-of-factly. "There is a key in the front pocket of my bag; does someone care to let me out? Maybe find me my shirt?"

Once Lana was unrestrained, she gently rubbed her palms over her wrists that were raw and red from struggling against the handcuffs. Her shirt had been lost in the rubble, so Jack offered her his coat. Annie leaned against a wall smoking a cigarette.

"Right then," said the Doctor, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. "Let's say we get you home, Jack."

"What are you going to do with that?" asked Lana, nodding toward the black box that now held the Impulse, with a slight edge of apprehension in her voice.

"I thought we'd leave it here," said the Doctor. "This ship is dead with all the crew gone. The entity is trapped in the box. Besides, even if someone came along," he said pulling a knob off the box and putting it in his pocket, "they won't be able to get anything out of that box without the on switch."

"So Doctor," Jack said as they stepped into the TARDIS. "Bow ties now?"

"Bow ties are cool," the Doctor responded, as he straightened the bow tie in question.

As the TARDIS dematerialized, the digital readings on the data box fluctuated.

* * *

**A/N: I am currently hard at work on the next adventure, but I may not have it done in time to post a chapter next week. I won't be posting any more chapters until I have the whole adventure written, but I promise to post again as soon as reasonably possible. **

**As usual, thank you so much to everyone who has favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story so far. **


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